Tales of The Vanguard - Volume 1: A Unifying Division
by Perigros1
Summary: In the year of 2031, New York City is defended by a new generation of heroes, ones who have fought nearly since birth. However, when faced with a world of heroes who grew up as heroes, how does one decide what they stand for, and what lengths they're willing to go to? More than that, what is the price for peace? (Volume 1 of the new series, Tales of The Vanguard)
1. Chapter I: Tangled Beginnings

**Chapter I: Tangled Beginnings**

**Date: January 11****th****, 2031**

**Time: 11:28 PM**

Gwen perched atop the gargoyle, gazing down upon the bustling city with an appreciative look of fascination; She would never really get used to this feeling. Up here, with the sunlight shining against her face and the wind rustling through her hair as the civilians below hustled about looking suspiciously like ants, she felt powerful. More than that, she felt free. Free to do what, she wasn't certain. Free to live? Yes, cliché as it might sound, there was more than a grain of truth hidden in that statement. Up here, she felt alive.

While this train of thought ran down the tracks in her head, it suddenly derailed with the arrival of a vague tingling sensation in her temples. Mere moments later, sirens ran down below her as an entire squad of police cars gave chase to a van that was clearly breaking every speed limit and traffic code known to man. A smile crept onto her face and she quickly tapped a button on her watch, leaping off the building as a million nanobots poured out of the device and covered her body, solidifying into a fabric-like suit that covered her entire body. The nanobots just finished their activation process when she quickly extended a hand and fired a line of very sticky material from a gauntlet attached to her wrist, using the line as a pendulum to swing over the cityscape at momentous velocity. Any New Yorker would instantly recognize her as easily as they would any other hero in this city, or from any city for that matter. After all, who wouldn't recognize Spider-Girl?

She quickly twisted her body in midair and fired another webline from her left-hand gauntlet, altering her course to give chase to the fleeing vehicle. She quickly gained on the perpetrators, easily maneuvering through the streets and flipping through the air to land directly on top of the van. Leaning over the edge, she quickly peered into the window, only to have the tingling sensation in her temples return and immediately pulled herself up, a bullet firing straight through the space her head had occupied a moment before.

"Well that was rude," She complained. "And to think I was just going to ask if I could borrow a cup of sugar." Immediately she lunged with all her strength, grabbing hold of the side of the van and turning in midair to crash through the window, feet-first, and kick the gunner square in the jaw. Immediately she took his gun, backhanding him into unconsciousness with her free hand, and hurled the gun at the criminal in the passenger seat in front of her, knocking him out as well. She then ducked as the driver fired back at her with a pistol, using the rearview mirror to aim as he continued driving. Immediately she fired a quick burst of webbing, a pellet of the sticky conglomeration ripping the weapon from his grasp as she leapt over and slammed his head against the steering wheel before lunging through the window she's already crashed through and firing two separate weblines at the vehicle, pulling it to a halt with a massive surge of force. The driver stumbled out of the vehicle, dazed to say the least, and drew a knife, taking a fighting stance as he stared her down, only to collapse backwards a split second later, a sleeping dart embedded in his chest.

Gwen groaned, immediately turning to look behind her, already fairly certain who had fired it but feeling the need to check anyway. Her suspicions were confirmed as she noted a girl of her own age a few yards away, blowgun still in hand.

"Come on, I had that one!" she whined, gesturing to the man on the ground. The girl only rolled her eyes in response.

"I'm sure you did, but I took care of him for you. You're welcome by the way," the girl responded, walking over as she placed the blowgun in a holster on her belt. "We all know how much you hate small knives."

"Oh they're, like, my one weakness," Gwen responded dryly, glaring at the new arrival, who did little more than glower back in silence. This staring contest continued a few moments longer before both immediately burst out laughing and quickly hugged each other as the police came to a stop behind them. Several of them immediately ran past them toward the vehicle to apprehend the would-be escapees, but none of them seemed to give the two costumed vigilantes much notice. To them, this was just business as usual.

"It's good to see you Rachel," she continued, completely ignoring the NYPD officers filing past them. "But, I thought you were in Detroit investigating some kind of Drug Cartel? When you filled me in over the phone, it sounded pretty serious."

Rachel only shook her head at the inquiry. "The cartel job was a dead end. Two months of undercover work and nothing to show for it."

Gwen grimaced, although she knew full well no one could tell through her mask. "Sounds rough," she surmised, unsure of what else to say. Rachel only laughed in agreement.

"Believe me, it was, but it is what it is. Come on, let's get a bite to eat, I'll fill you in while we do."

Gwen raised an eyebrow. "You wanna change first? Believe me, I get where you're coming from, if I had such a stylish outfit I'd want to flaunt it as well, but with you showing up completely out of the blue again, the press would have a field day." As if to prove her point, several cameras began flashing from bystanders on the sidewalk, the shock over the car chase they had just witnessed now replaced by the buzz of what they hoped to be the latest gossip. Rachel looked around curiously, as if just noticing they were in public, and then nodded in agreement, the two immediately heading down an alleyway and heading to an old warehouse where they quickly donned their civilian clothes. For Gwen, this was as simple as deactivating the nanobots and letting them retreat back into the watch, her civilian clothes already on underneath. For Rachel, however, a little more privacy was needed.

"I still don't think it's fair that most of us have to go into dirty alleyways and store our clothes behind old dumpsters with the hobos, but you just press a button and 'voila!' you're ready for the day," Rachel grumbled through the door.

"Not everyone is as lucky as I am," she snickered, fully aware of the eye roll she was probably receiving on the other end of the door. She heard faint sounds of rustling from inside for a few more seconds before the door opened and Rachel stepped out, looking like a regular, non-crime fighting sixteen year-old girl. Gwen examined her a bit closer, looking her over to see if she had changed any in the past two months that she had been gone. All in all, she seemed to be much the same, though Gwen really wasn't sure what else she expected.

Her chestnut-colored hair ran down just past her shoulders, straight as it had always been when they were kids. Her eyes were exactly the same shade of blue they had always been, sparkling in a color not unlike that of an Aquamarine. Evidently she hadn't been out in the sun too often, because her skin was still a pale, milky white color that Rachel never seemed to be able to darken. Trial and error had often proven that a tanning Rachel resulted in a sun-burned Rachel and little more, much to her eternal dismay. Her body was that of a lithe, highly athletic girl with a great amount of tone but not a multitude of muscle mass. Rachel's fighting style was heavily reliant on stealth, weaponry, and acrobatics, and as such she was built far more like a gymnast than a weight lifter.

Gwen, on the other hand, looked quite a bit like her mother: Mary Jane Watson. Her hair was a fiery red color, and her eyes a striking emerald Green. In comparison to Rachel, Gwen appeared rather dainty and vulnerable in regards to build, looking every bit the fragile, princess-like damsel in distress type that one would probably mistake her for when not aware of her abilities. What with her supernatural limits of strength, she never really got a workout from physical exertion in a fight, at least not often in terms of lifting things, and as such no muscle really ever needed to develop. Her limbs were long, as were her fingers, and they carried with them an appearance of grace that made any kind of acrobatics she did while in costume appear as effortless as they in fact were.

"So, what happened with the Detroit case?" she inquired curiously, snapping back to reality. "You seemed so sure about that job…"

"I _was_ sure about it, that's the thing. I'm there for two months, undercover around the clock, and all of a sudden someone tips the guy off just before the deal goes down. He vanishes without a trace and I lose two months' worth of effort just like that," she responded, a definite edge of bitterness and disappointment to her voice. She sighed a moment longer, frowning at the memory before she returned to her usual self. "At least I got to come back home though," she noted. "I missed you guys way too much to stay any longer."

"I missed you too," Gwen admitted. "Frankly, it's been pretty lonely here without you, everybody's been laying pretty low for some reason. Things have been strangely quiet crime-wise, and I guess most of them figured they didn't want to waste their own time until something showed up that was worth patrolling for."

Rachel nodded in understanding. "Especially around the holiday season I'm sure…"

Gwen's mood visibly darkened at that, her shoulders slumping slightly as a slight frown emerged on her typically infectiously-optimistic face. For Rachel, this was all she needed to realize she had brought up the wrong subject. "Oh crap Gwen, I'm so sorry. I didn't even think about-"

"It's fine," she interrupted softly, her tone indicating that while the situation might in fact be 'fine', and the conversation was 'fine', she was very much not 'fine', and that was not a fine situation to be in.

"I didn't even think… oh gosh that must've been awful…" Rachel mused, laying a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. Holidays were never an easy time for Gwen, but it just now became apparent that with Rachel gone they must've been nearly unbearable. "Are you… okay?"

Gwen was silent for a moment, contemplating how to respond. She didn't blame Rachel for doing what she needed to do, so of course she wasn't angry. At the same time, that didn't erase the loneliness that had inevitably come as a result, so she couldn't exactly say she was happy either. "I'll live. It's not like it was anything you could control." She went silent again for several moments before sighing and forcing a sad half-smile. "At least I got to stay home for the holidays."

Rachel gazed at her worriedly, trying to read her expression for any sort of indication as to what she was thinking. "What about Michael and Lucy?"

"Michael had his own family to worry about, and Lucy was locked up in her shop all week. There was no way I was going to be able to get in touch with her," she stated flatly, turning away to mask the pain. Just because Rachel could tell what she was feeling didn't mean she was altogether keen on showing it, and she didn't particularly want to continue on with this conversation as it was. "It was far from my first Christmas alone Rach, honestly. I've been through worse. Let's just move onto something else okay?"

"Alright…" Rachel yielded reluctantly, wishing she could do more to help, but also noticing the emotional strain this was causing her friend. She'd find a way to make it up to her later. Maybe she'd ask Michael and Lucy if they had anything in mind. In the meantime though, she was still hungry. "So… how about we get that lunch?"


	2. Chapter II: A Visit Among Friends

**Chapter II: A Visit Among Friends**

**Date: January 11****th****, 2031**

**Time: 7:28 PM**

"No, I don't want to buy anything! I don't want your thin mints, I don't want your health insurance, and I most certainly do not want your Book of-"

The door suddenly opened and a surprised girl of about 16 stared back at Gwen and Rachel, mouth still slightly open from not finishing her sentence. Silence filled the area for several seconds, with Rachel grinning at the girl expectantly, the girl staring back at her in surprise, and Gwen cocking her eyebrow in disbelief at the rejection of potential thin mints. All three of them stared at each other in respective feelings of expectation, disbelief, and complete and utter cookie-resultant befuddlement. The girl slowly extended her finger to poke Rachel in the arm, Rachel now joining Gwen in the act of raising her eyebrow in confusion before the girl threw the door open and wrapped her in a tight, friendly embrace.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Gwen grumbled off to the side, a bit miffed at the total lack of acknowledgment she was receiving. The girl continued to ignore her, instead looking to interrogate Rachel.

"I thought we told you to call us when you were on your way back?" She demanded, obviously still befuddled by her presence.

"And miss that look of complete vexation? Not likely. After all, how often do I actually get to see you this confused Lucy?" Rachel teased, Lucy merely giving a reluctant nod of concession to signify her understanding. It was at that moment that a boy walked by inside, just within view of the door frame, and looked over at Rachel grinning.

"Hey, how's it going Rach?" He yelled over in greeting, Gwen throwing up her arms and turning around to sit on the steps while they chatted. The boy didn't seem to notice however and walked over, taking his own turn to hug Rachel now that she was back. Rachel laughed and hugged him back.

"You two look well," she stated awkwardly, though she meant every word of it. Michael was a big guy, standing at around six-foot-two and a good 240 pounds of pure muscle. If he had any interest, or time for that matter, he would have made one heck of a linebacker. As it was, he was plenty intimidating right until you met him and realized he was like the most mild-mannered teddy bear ever. His skin was a light brown, clearly African-American if anyone actually had to point that out, and his black hair was in a buzz cut as usual.

Lucy on the other hand was about Rachel's height, standing at around 5'6" with platinum blonde, waist length hair (making grime and soot really stand out when gone unwashed for several days). Her skin, like her hair: smudged with grease and oil as it always was, was a light Caucasian, pale from almost never leaving the sanctity of her lab when given an option. In the rare event that she did leave, however, she managed to trade the head bandana and work gloves for the standard scarf-and-beanie hipster starter look. As it was, she was surprisingly muscular given her lack of activity, but when one is lifting sheets of metal all day for welding and lab-work, one develops a decent amount of strength to back it up.

Michael grinned in response. "You look like you've been doing okay too," he noted before waving her inside, glancing down to Gwen who was still pouting on the steps with a smile. "You coming, Bugs?" he inquired, waiting for her to get up. Gwen simply shrugged, got to her feet, and walked past the three of them wordlessly, refusing to even glance in their direction with mock indignation.

"She's not going to acknowledge that you're here until she gets a hello," Rachel pointed out, holding back a giggle at Gwen's antics. Lucy and the boy simply made eye contact, no doubt engaged in a mental battle of wills to see who would say hello first, before Michael turned to Gwen, who still had her back to him, to greet her.

"I'm sorry," he began. "_Hello,_ Gwen. How are you doing on this fine morning?" he conceded, turning to Lucy with a look that said 'I said my part, now it's your turn'. Lucy stared at him defiantly, earning a sharper look in response along with a nod in Gwen's direction.

"Oh, come on, we obviously know she's here!" Lucy grumbled, not one to waste much time on small talk. For her, there was always another project to get started on. Gwen immediately perked up, putting a hand to her ear and yelling back in response.

"I'm sorry Rachel and Michael, did you say something? I could've sworn there was some kind of commotion coming from over there," she inquired, still ignoring Lucy's presence. Rachel and Michael both turned to Lucy once more, both of them staring at her expectantly a few more seconds before she gave in.

"Alright, alright, fine. Hey Gwen, how's it going?" She sighed in annoyance. Gwen immediately leapt up, turning around and grinning at them.

"Lucy! I didn't even know you were here. You really should speak up more, nobody likes a mumbler," she advised, giving Michael a quick hug before turning to face the girl. "Anyway, Rachel here neglected to tell _any _of us she was coming, which I'll agree was a minor annoyance. Especially since she stole my thunder."

"You looked like you needed help!" Rachel laughed, teasing her friend in response.

"I had it under control!" Gwen exclaimed, Lucy and Michael snorting at her vexation. She crossed her arms and sighed before looking down at her watch. "Anyway, I have to get back to patrol. I just wanted to walk Rachel down here. I'll catch you guys later," she said with a sigh, waving at them one last time before heading out through the front door, closing it behind her. Lucy and Michael immediately glanced over to Rachel in confusion.

"Since when does she have to get back to patrol? It's not like we have a schedule or anything," Lucy pointed out. Rachel bit her lip worriedly as she nodded in agreement.

"Frankly, I think she's kinda upset about being alone for the holidays. They're hard enough for her as it is what with… you know."

Michael looked at her in confusion. "Alone? I thought she was with Lucy?" He asked looking over at his friend curiously. She in return looked back at him with equal amounts of confusion.

"Why would she be with me? I was working all week, you know how that gets. I just assumed she was with you," she responded, eyes widening in understanding. "Oh, Schindler's List_,_" she cursed with the flair of a movie buff, now angry at herself. "She must've been off on her own. I heard a few knocks at the door, but you know how I get when I'm working…"

Rachel and Michael both nodded in understanding, fully aware of her tendency to zone out when she was in her lab. Many a door to door salesman had come to her house only to run off with their tails between their legs at her angry rants through the door. Michael winced before asking a question that had been on his own mind. "So, her annoyance when we didn't say hi to her…?"

"Probably wasn't completely fake, no," Rachel stated glumly, having already considered that well before Gwen left. "We need to make it up to her somehow." The other two nodded in assent, and a dark cloud settled over the room as they contemplated where their friend may have headed, wondering how much damage they had actually done.

\- Tales of the Vanguard -

Gwen glowered from the roof of the skyscraper, too involved with her thoughts to do much of anything else. She had gone off on patrol immediately after her visit with Michael and Lucy, but truthfully the local police had everything more than under control for once. All in all, there really wasn't a whole lot to do. Normally, that would be a blessing, but she had far too much on her mind to be comfortable sitting around with nothing but her memories.

The truth was she wasn't angry with Michael or Lucy, not really anyway. Bad experiences happen to everyone, and using your friends as a scapegoat to get angry didn't accomplish any good. That being said, holidays were always a difficult time of year for her, and being alone during them certainly didn't help matters overall.

Gwen shook her head, attempting to clear it. Dwelling on the past never did any good, after all. She just had to keep moving and it'd fade away, just like always. She began to look around for something, anything that would be able to distract her for the next few minutes, when she noticed a green streak a few alleys down from her. Immediately she leapt off the building and swung off to investigate, landing on a fire escape several stories up once she reached the destination, greeted with a very interesting scene to say the least.

Below her were about a dozen armed muggers, all firing wildly at a young boy within a gigantic green bubble. All the bullets merely bounced off the field, and the muggers were quickly running out of ammunition. All of a sudden, the shield dropped and a large mace formed in midair out of the same green energy, the source seeming to be streaming from a glowing green ring on the boy's left hand. Several of the gunmen were knocked back into the wall by the mace, falling unconscious almost immediately from the impact, but most of the group duck just in time. Immediately, the boy reared back and flailed the mace again, hitting the fire escape Gwen was perched on. She immediately leapt off, sticking to the adjacent wall to avoid the falling debris. The fire escape, on the other hand, fell atop all the remaining gunmen, and the boy slowly looked up directly at her.

"Are you done watching now Bugs?" he shouted, the green aura slowly dissipating around him. Gwen nodded and dropped to the ground nimbly, landing lightly on all fours without any hint of effort. Immediately she glanced to the unconscious mob and nodded in appreciation, impressed at the efficiency of the battle.

"I see you didn't really need my help here Lantern," she admitted, chuckling slightly at the scene. The boy, Lantern, only nodded in response, taking a look at his own handiwork as well. They stared a few more seconds before mutually shrugging and heading to the rooftop for a bit more privacy.

"What brings you down to this end of Harlem?" Lantern asked, looking at her curiously, not used to seeing her on such a rough side of town for no apparent reason. Usually Gwen stuck more to the Manhattan area, sometimes venturing into Midtown when the situation arose.

"I… needed to clear my head," she admitted truthfully, looking up at him with a reluctant grimace. Lantern was a tall boy of about seventeen years in age, his eyes a vibrant green that matched his emerald costume quite nicely. Any part of the suit that _wasn't_ green, however, was a deep, obsidian-like black color, which still somehow managed to shimmer despite being the darkest color one could really think of. His hair was a chocolate brown, and cropped short, just long enough to stick upwards in a quaff that was somewhat reminiscent of David Tennant's hair. His face was covered with a mask that was akin to any former Green Lantern, covering the space around his eyes, but literally nothing else. Frankly, Gwen didn't see the use in a mask that literally did nothing to hide your identity, but then again who was she to judge another's costume? Clark Kent got by for years just putting on glasses after all. Maybe it was some kind of fashion statement.

Lantern looked at her curiously, unsure of what exactly she meant by that. The two had been known to work together from time to time, but then all the supers did occasionally. The truth of the matter was they were acquaintances when in costume, but had no personal relationship with each other outside of that, and that suited them just fine. They had each other's backs in the field, but in the end the less people you trusted yourself with the better, at least in their line of work.

"Have you seen any of the others lately?" he inquired, obviously referring to the other superheroes. There were many in New York, but only a select group made their presence overly noteworthy. Still, even they had been largely off duty as of late, what with the rapid diminishment in crime rates.

"Sol and Lucy have been off for the holidays, but Lynx just got back from her job in Detroit," she responded, using code names for all but Lucy. Lucy had been operating as the main technician for supers in the city for years. Anytime a super needed repairs, upgrades, or new weaponry to tinker with, they would go to her. As a result, they had given up on attempting to utilize a code name long ago. "Other than that, they've been lying pretty low. I saw Lady Mars passing by last week, but as usual she didn't stop to talk much."

"What about Si?" Lantern prodded, noting a more recently-discovered superhero who tended to utilize telekinetic attacks and illusions in combat situations. No one really knew him all that well yet, and it was strongly suspected that his mental abilities extended into the realm of telepathy as well as telekinesis, and as such many were sure to keep their distance. Gwen shook her head in response.

"Not since before Christmas," she added regretfully.

"And what about the Batman?"

Gwen scoffed. As far as she was concerned, there was no such thing anymore. People had been going on about the presence of a Batman since Bruce Wayne went into retirement twenty years ago, but no one had ever had an official sighting. With no evidence to back it up, there was no more water to it then there was to a standard teen gossip magazine. "The Batman is an urban legend and nothing more now. Wayne had his turn with the League, but no one has had a run in with the Bat since. Batman is good, but he's not good enough to remain completely invisible for twenty years in the middle of New York."

Lantern shrugged in uncertainty, clearly unconvinced. "The original guy was pretty darn good according to the history books."

"And I'm sure he was, but the fact of the matter is it's been two decades with no sightings, no physical evidence, and nothing but rumors spread by criminals and lunatics to signify his existence. It's a hoax," she stated flatly, clearly not relenting on her view anytime soon.

Lantern sighed and looked down at his wrist, manifesting a watch using his power ring to check the time. A few moments later, he looked back up, frowning slightly. "Look, I have to go. We'll meet up again tomorrow or something, but I can't stay any longer." Gwen nodded quickly in understanding.

"Works for me. Try not to die on the way out Frodo."

"You too Bugs," he responded, rolling his eyes before activating the power ring and taking off down the alley.

Gwen stared after him a minute before sighing and turning around. Batman. Hours of thinking and patrolling, and that was all she had found to distract her: Batman. This was like the equivalent of going off on a day of sightseeing and touring, but refusing to think of anything but the Loch Ness Monster. "_What a load of guano_," she thought, turning to walk away. Still, part of her couldn't help but wish she was wrong as she walked away. Heaven knows this city needed every hero it could get after all.


	3. Chapter III: Fighting Dirty

**Chapter III: Fighting Dirty**

**Date: January 12****th****, 2031**

**Time: 1:47 AM**

Darkness descended upon the city quicker than usual that night, with clouds rolling in for what appeared to be a decently-sized thunder storm approaching from the east. Thunder rumbled through the skies as lightning flashed across the horizon, rain beginning to pour down the shivering figure of a young girl, sleeping in a corner at the end of an alley. Upon closer inspection one would notice that it was none other than Gwen, but of course no one came out at this time of night to inspect sleeping figures in alleyways. For years she had come here, finding it one of the more accessible and defendable places she had access to on a nightly basis. Had she asked Rachel, or Michael, or even Lucy, any of them would have given her a place to stay, but in the end she was frightened to allow herself that close to someone. When you lived the life of a superhero, intimacy was the quickest and surest way to heartbreak, and she had felt enough of that in her life.

Suddenly, a shrill cry rang out from across the street and Gwen shot to her feet, instantly alert and tapping her wristwatch to activate her suit. She ran over to the alleyway almost immediately, looking for the source of the cry, seeing a figure huddled over in pain in the corner. Immediately she ran over, placing a hand on their shoulder to ask them what happened, when all of a sudden she felt a prick on her shoulder blade, her head quickly going foggy. Immediately she felt the back of her shoulder only to find a dart piercing into it, pulling it out with a wince as the world began to spin around her. Whatever was on that dart didn't appear to be hurting her or making her lose consciousness, at least not yet, but it was causing some major hallucinations that she had to struggle to keep in check. Why hadn't her spider-sense alerted her?

Angrily she pulled back the robe on the figure, only to have it collapse to the ground, realizing with horror that the figure was the corpse of a civilian woman, an audio recording lying at her feet. This was a trap.

Immediately she whirled around to flee, only to fall to her knees, head reeling from the drug in her system. Slowly, she tried to rise, only to go flying back into a brick wall seconds later as a bolt of lightning struck from out of nowhere. This lightning was not from the storm however, but instead came from a figure waltzing down the alley, hand extended as sparks trickled off of his fingertips. Groggily she got to her feet, getting to a fighting stance despite the aching in her muscles from the impact.

"Cute trick," she grimaced. "Did your Fairy Godmother teach you to twinkle like that?"

The man was masked, and she could not make out any defining features, but a cold chill went down her spine as she gazed at him wearily, and she had a vague sensation that he was grinning from ear to ear in the current situation. "I always heard you were a mouthy one… let's take care of that shall we?" he cackled, his voice taking on a psychopathic lilt, making one thing perfectly clear: This man was not even close to the realm of sanity. Instantly he leapt at her with a surprising amount of speed, her spider-senses failing to warn her yet again as she barely managed to sidestep his attack, firing a web at him to throw him into a wall. Instead however, he simply grabbed hold of it, giving it a sharp tug as he hurled her towards him, punching her square in the gut before kneeing her in the face.

Gwen toppled to the ground, rolling to her feet as she fought through the pain, looking for an opportunity to clamber to a more open space. Instead however, the man grabbed her by the throat, holding her up several seconds as she struggled for breath before hurling her at the wall, cracking the bricks upon impact. That wasn't the only thing that snapped however, as Gwen felt several places in her right arm emit a sharp "CRACK!" and she cried out in pain. The man immediately punched her several times in the face, before grabbing her by the broken arm and throwing her to the ground, reaching for a lead pipe on the ground several feet away. Gwen immediately began to crawl away, tears streaming down her face from the agony in her body, but she wasn't fast enough in her current condition.

"It's the bottom of the night, Vortex steps up to the plate! Here comes the windup…" the man cried out with glee, slamming her in the back of the head with the pipe, sending her crumpling to the ground. "And it's a home run!"

Gwen was completely out of her league in her current condition. She had taken on criminals like this for years, but never before had her spider-senses been so effectively and unexpectedly been canceled out. That wasn't all either, as the drug in her system was affecting her cognitive abilities, drastically slowing her reaction time and making thinking a constant uphill battle. Her skin was beginning to tingle as well, an effect she could only assume was from the dart given the current situation.

The man's cackling suddenly stopped and he turned deathly serious, his eyes showing a cold fury that could be described as nothing less than blood-lust. Had anyone been able to see under his mask, they would have witnessed one of the coldest, most vile grins they would ever see, something primal being unleashed in his core. He dropped the pipe and bent down, grabbing her by the collar of her suit and hauling her up, slamming her against the wall to look him dead in the eye. "Now comes the fun part insect…"

"Spiders are arachnids you imbecile," she grunted quietly, trying to maintain a fighting spirit through the pain. All it earned in response was a quick punch to the abdomen, knocking the wind out of her.

"I didn't ask for a science lesson bug!" the man roared, completely losing it at this point. She could feel the stench of his breath, reeking of day old egg with an odor pungent enough to cause her to turn green under her mask, nearly vomiting. Instantly the ferocity vanished, replaced once again by the manic glee he had displayed in the beginning of the assault. "Hey now, new shoes, just got them cleaned, mind not having any accidents on them? The vomit is even harder to get out of the cloth than your blood is!"

"Why?" Gwen gasped, fighting to stall until help could arrive, if it ever would. The man cocked his head, staring at her curiously in response.

"Oh you mean why do this? Why assault the innocent little spider in her web? I thought you were enjoying out little party…" he giggled, his face right next to hers as he spoke in barely a whisper. "Because I can. Because you're in my way. Because you deserve it after everything your kind has done!"

"So you just want to get rid of me, no reason behind it?"

"This is an infestation, and I'm the exterminator. The sooner you accept that the better," he growled. Gwen merely narrowed her eyes.

"If this is an extermination, where's the pesticide?" she asked pointedly, looking for an opening to get away. The man immediately burst into fits of giggles, speaking in between the waves of laughter with a psychotic cackle.

"Oh, you really don't get it do you? It's already in you!" he taunted, just before an unfathomable wave of agony ripped through Gwen's entire being, causing her to yell out in the loudest, most throat-rippingly agonizing scream she had ever emitted. Her blood felt like it was on fire as he dropped her to the ground, her muscles going weak with exhaustion as they began to cramp one by one. Her eyes burned, and her bones literally felt like they were tearing apart at the seams as her skin crawled along her body. Whatever this drug was, she could feel it down to her very core, rendering her completely helpless. The adrenaline was pumping through her body, fighting just to keep her alive as her body literally began to attack itself from the poison. Her skin was completely pale, white as a sheet in the places where her skin was visible through the massive shreds in her costume, blood dripping from several different areas in her body, not the least of which seemed to be the base of her neck from the pipe that had struck her earlier. Gasping for breath she crumpled into the fetal position, a pain-filled whimper coming from her mouth against her will as tears streamed down her cheeks. So this was what dying felt like.

The man stood over her, shaking his head in disappointment. "Such a waste. I really thought you would be more difficult to take down than this," he sighed, stepping back as the cloud above her began to glow, ready to strike her with the bolt of lightning that would end her life. Slowly she closed her eyes, unable to watch any more, both out of pain and fear, and the bolt came down. Instead of striking her however, the thunder exploded around them as the lightning impacted a figure that had just leapt in front of her, absorbing the electricity and creating a kind of aura around themselves, radiating out in a field of pure light waves.

"Thought you could use a hand," the girl grunted, staring the figure down. The man roared in fury at his prey having been saved from his final attack and hurled bolt after bolt of lightning at the girl, with her absorbing every single one of them as her aura field grew brighter and brighter with every strike. Instantly she unleashed a beam of her own, thrusting his own power back at him as he was blast back through the brick wall and into the building, stone crumbling around him. Instantly the man got to his feet, popping his neck and getting back into a fighting stance, seemingly completely unfazed by the blow. He charged the girl, ready to tackle her when a bolas wrapped around his legs, tripping him to the ground as Rachel leapt down from the fire escape above, extending claws much like The Wolverine's, but mechanical in design. A circle of flame quickly erupted around the man as an armored figure flew overhead, hovering above with the light of the flame glimmering off of his red and gold armor. The suit was not like that of an Iron Man, but was instead meant as a way to contain the heat when necessary, or use it as a white-hot metal weapon when desired, and the occupant was none other than Michael, utilizing his own pyrokinetic abilities to power the machine. The three stared the maniac down, each ready to launch a full-power assault if he tried anything, but the man simply chuckled from underneath his mask.

"Until next time insect," it taunted, before a lightning bolt came down upon him and he vanished from the alley. The others all looked at each other in confusion before immediately running over to Gwen, who was still crumpled on the ground whimpering in agony, the poison in her veins ripping her apart from the inside out. Michael immediately canceled out his flames, the metal of the suit slowly cooling back to its regular temperature as Rachel knelt down beside her.

"Oh Gwen…" she gasped in horror, seeing how much pain her friend was in. "What did he _do_ to you?"

Gwen only whimpered in response, a tear trickling down her cheek. There was very little evidence to suggest she was even aware of their presence, or at the very least able to respond, and she appeared to be going into post-traumatic shock. The new girl inspected her carefully, glancing over to Michael and Rachel worriedly before she too knelt beside Gwen and carefully laid a hand on her temple, causing Gwen to wince in pain. The girl continued however, closing her eyes a moment before opening them once more and standing up, fury flashing in her eyes.

"He poisoned her," she stated flatly, having somehow read her mind to see how drastic the situation was. "We have to get her to Lucy, and fast."

Michael nodded, picking her up gently, wincing at Gwen's cries of pain as he carried her down the alley like a baby, sending a burst of flame to his feet, using them as thrusters to direct his flight while keeping the rest of his armor cool so that Gwen wouldn't be hurt any more than she already was. Rachel and the girl followed after him, clambering along the rooftops as they made for Lucy's warehouse, wondering fearfully if they were already too late.

"Get her in here!" Lucy shouted through the door when they arrived, already aware of the situation. She had woken up to a blaring alarm from her computer, showing how off the chart Gwen's vitals were from the battle. She had immediately called to let Rachel and Michael know, and they had taken off immediately, meeting the new girl along the way unexpectedly. She threw open the door and waved them inside, clearing off a lab table in the back of the room. "Set her down there," she instructed, powering up several devices as she did. Michael gently set Gwen down, trying not to hurt her when he did so but still eliciting a sharp cry of agony from her that was painful enough to cause the entire room to wince in sympathy. Lucy tapped the button on her suit to deactivate it, sending the nanobots back into the watch as she began to remove Gwen's extra clothing, leaving her in a tight white t-shirt and jeans that were shredded and seared from the electrical blasts. Rachel knelt by her side once more, staring at her worriedly as Lucy worked to get the machines online so she could check her vitals and take some blood samples. Michael stood behind Rachel, placing his hand gently on her shoulder to reassure her as the other girl stood off to the side worriedly, watching from a distance. All of their eyes, save Lucy's were very clearly fixed on Gwen, taking in the full extent of her injuries.

Her body was covered in deep purple bruises, some as large as a grapefruit, but that was the best of the damage she'd taken. She had several wounds that were pouring blood out of her body, some of it already dried onto the skin around it like a massive scab. Her right eye was already beginning to blacken and swell, and there were several burns on her body that were already beginning to blister. Dirt and grime were lodged in the wounds from being thrown into the brick walls and rubble, infecting them greatly. Her right arm was probably the worst to look at, shattered in at least three places, bent at a sickeningly awkward series of angles, with bone clearly sticking out of the skin in at least two of the fractures, resulting in the most mangled arm any of them had ever seen. Her veins were a dark green, laced with the poison that had caused her so much agony, but they appeared to be getting even darker, signifying that the poison was only growing stronger. This was confirmed when Gwen immediately burst into a banshee-like screech, causing everyone to cover their ears in pain as her body began to spasm uncontrollably from pain, tears streaming down her face once more as she sobbed. Lucy immediately ran over with a syringe, injecting it into her good arm and drawing a blood sample while the others watched helplessly, a tear dripping down Rachel's cheek as she watched her best friend suffer. Lucy immediately injected her with a second syringe, and after a few moments Gwen fell unconscious, her screams quieting to a quiet whimper that persisted even in her unconscious state.

Lucy immediately took the blood sample and loaded it into her systems, typing several commands into the computer as she did. A list of results popped up on the screen, along with a microscopic image of the blood sample, searching for traits of the poison that had been injected into her. Lucy's eyes narrowed in confusion, staring scrupulously at the screen as she furiously began to type in one command after another. The others watched nervously as she did, wondering all the while what exactly the drug had been. She typed one final command in, inserting a syringe into a machine to her left where a bluish liquid was poured in. She quickly took it, examined it carefully a second more before injecting it once more into Gwen's bad arm and standing back to watch the effects. The green slowly began to leave her veins, and the whimpering died down into a deafening silence as the room filled with an air of nervousness and fear, watching every movement Gwen made. The heartbeat monitor began to slow down to a normal rate, and her breathing slowed as well, her chest rising and falling less rapidly than it had in her state of suffering. Lucy sighed in relief before looking to the others to explain the nature of the poison, or at least what she had discovered so far.

"The poison is unlike anything I've seen before," she began carefully, trying to figure out how to word it. "It almost seems like it was specifically designed, crafted to target Gwen's DNA, or at least DNA very similar to it in nature. The poison contains traces of the Carnage Symbiote, small enough to be irrelevant to composition, but large enough that it made the entire poison invisible to her spider-sense, and cancelled it out when it flowed into her system. Once it did, the poison took hold, and canceled out the rest of her powers as well," she explained, pausing to let that sink in. "She couldn't crawl away, she had no more strength than any girl her age would, her reflexes were disabled, her spider-sense nullified, her web-shooters overloaded from electricity, and her mind in a fog from the hallucinative aspects of poison. She literally couldn't do anything to help herself. After a few minutes, the rest of the drug took hold, hence the screams you heard coming from her after it did."

Rachel looked up at her grimly, her eyes sparkling with a strange combination of anger and sadness, rage and fear both rolled into one. "Why the delayed response?" she inquired, trying to understand what had happened. Lucy bit her lip a moment before staring back to Gwen, answering while she stared at the girl she had known for so long, wondering what would have happened if she had lost her.

"The poison, as I said, seemed to be catered specifically towards her DNA. That is to say, in any other person, it wouldn't have any effect at all more than likely, and the body would flush it out within an hour without any symptoms taking hold. However, in the subject it was catered to, it seems to have burrowed down to the nucleus of her cells, latching right onto the very DNA of her being and attempting to shred it apart. This caused her body to feel as though it was ripping apart at the seams, the very building blocks being blasted apart by the drug. Had I not been able to synthesize the antidote, it would have killed her within the hour… maybe less."

Everyone immediately looked back to Gwen, realizing finally just how much pain she must have been in. It had looked bad from afar, but knowing what they did now… it would be a wonder if she wasn't emotionally scarred from this for years. Even the new girl, who had never met any of them before that night, seemed completely enraged at the attack, and they all glanced at each other with a look that said largely the same thing: They had to find the man who did this, and then they had to bring him down, once and for all. The question was, how exactly could they do that?


	4. Chapter IV: A Means To An End

**Chapter IV: A Means To An End**

**Date: January 15****th****, 2031**

**Time: 12:07 PM**

Three days has passed since the attack on Gwen's life, and by now the entire city was aware of the damage. Everyone had heard stories of the mysterious assailant, but no one had any news on where he had disappeared to, or when he could be back. Many of the heroes had instantaneously come out of vacation, shocked at the sudden spike of danger, and New York was presently crawling with heroes searching for the perpetrator. Gwen, however, was still completely comatose.

Rachel sat at her bedside, desperately hoping for some kind of sign that her friend would awaken soon, but so far it was to no avail. Lucy was currently using every piece of technology she had to locate the assailant, and Michael was scouring the city almost non-stop from the skies. The girl who had saved Gwen from the lightning, however, was nowhere to be seen, although the trio all agreed she was probably amongst the masses searching for the man responsible.

"Come on Gwen," Rachel whispered, desperately trying to coax her friend back into consciousness. "Don't leave me now…"

"She can't hear you, you know that right?"

Rachel immediately whirled around to find the girl from the other night standing in the doorway of the room, watching them intently. She appeared to be about two years older than herself, appearing to be around eighteen years old, and her ebony brown hair was lopped short in a kind of shaggy bob, her skin a dark tan color that signified an Asian background, or possibly native American. Somehow, Rachel had a vague feeling that neither was quite right, but she didn't really know why. The girl was rather tall for her age, standing at around 5'6", and appeared to be rather muscular, looking every bit as athletic as the track girls or soccer players at their local high school, if not more so. Her most striking features were her eyes, which were a verdant green and radiated almost as if they were powered by some kind of unseen energy. Her eyebrows were furrowed into an expression of concern and confusion, though Rachel couldn't quite tell whether that was from Gwen's condition or just a part of the girl's overall personality.

Rachel nodded slowly in response, looking back to her friend in concern. "I get that. I guess it just helps me cope with it all…"

The girl inspected Rachel curiously, still hanging back in the doorframe as if observing the situation from afar rather than being engrossed in its entirety. "Why are you so concerned about this?" Rachel opened her mouth to snap at the girl, but instead the girl quietly held up her hand. "What I mean is, obviously you care about your friend, I get that, but, then, so do the other two. So do a lot of the heroes in this city from what I can gather. Yet, none of them are staying here to be with her. So, my question is: Why are you?"

Rachel contemplated this for a moment, piecing together what the girl was saying. Why was she staying when everyone else had left? Was it because she was more loyal, more virtuous than them? Or perhaps because she was more panicked, or even obsessive about the situation. While some of these scenarios may certainly have been valid, the fact of the matter was that none of them were _the_ reason, and Rachel knew that almost instantaneously. Wording it, however, was a slightly more difficult endeavor.

"Because I owe her…" she answered finally, wincing a bit at the apparent callousness of that statement, but knowing in her heart that it was the truth. She loved Gwen like a sister, and she would do anything for her, but if she had said there wasn't an ounce of duty in her reasoning, she would have been lying. The girl regarded her curiously, apparently not having expected this kind of honesty from her.

"And why do you owe her?" the girl pried, trying to get to the heart of the matter. Rachel was silent for a moment before looking to the floor and sighing, collecting her thoughts. A few moments later, she nodded and looked back up at the girl, ready to speak.

"When I was younger, I was… a very different person. I guess you could say I was on the other end of the law, and there are a lot of things that I did that I'm not proud of. I stole some things, both out of greed and out of necessity, and I had more than one run-in with the law because of it. My father was working a lot, and I never met my mother, and as a result I guess I had this built in desire to rebel," she began going silent for a moment, and it was obvious she was reliving every minute of the experience in her head. "When I was eleven years old, I took things a step too far. I had stolen some old equipment of my father's I had found when I was in the attic, lying around in a box labeled "Nightwing". At the time, I hadn't thought much as to where it came from, thinking only of what I intended to do with it, but now…"

She paused and shook her head, continuing on with the story. "I robbed a bank. Like, legitimately broke into a vault and stole anything that looked valuable, as much as I could carry. I guess, in my head, I was thinking about how I'd always felt kind of invisible to my family, and maybe now people would see me. I hadn't really thought through what would happen if… if I got caught."

She looked back to Gwen now, her memory of that day still as clear as it always had been. As clear as it always would be. "But I got caught. The police couldn't catch me, especially since none of the security cameras picked up my face, but they weren't the only ones to be worried about. I was heading through the city, thinking I was home free, when all of a sudden Gwen dropped down in front of me, in costume and everything. I ran into her and fell to the ground, dropping the diamonds and money all over the ground in front of her. That was when the police came up behind me. I was… I was so sure that they were going to arrest me… that I was going to be caught by this girl and go to jail for who knows how long." A single tear dripped down her cheek, guilt eating away at her conscience over the experience she regretted the most in her life. She took a deep breath before continuing. "When the police came, they pulled out their handcuffs, ready to haul me away. That was when Gwen stepped in, walking over to the officers. She told them that there had been some kind of mistake, and that I was innocent. That the thief had not been me, but in fact had run into me only a few moments ago and spilled the jewels all over the ground. She said that when the thief saw Gwen, he immediately ran away, and she could not pursue him without leaving me behind."

Rachel looked back up at Jetta, her eyes watering at the memories. "She said that I hadn't stolen the jewels, but had actually returned them. She lied for me, and she gave me a second chance to set myself straight. I owe my life to her, and that's something I'm never going to be able to repay…"

The girl regarded Rachel curiously, not seeming very surprised at any of the information. In fact, she seemed strangely calm, especially considering the admission she had just witnessed. Her eyes went to Gwen, and then back to Rachel, obviously trying how best to word the question on her mind.

"If it had been someone else who was attacked," she began slowly. "If it was her here, and anyone else there… what would she do?"

Rachel paused a minute, contemplating the question. "She'd want to bring them to justice. To set things right. That's what she always does."

The girl nodded slowly in response before turning to leave, but Rachel immediately yelled after her.

"Where are you going?" she asked, puzzled at the stranger's sudden desire to leave. The girl stopped a moment, her back still to Rachel even as she responded.

"I have somewhere I have to be," she stated flatly, her tone clearly indicating she wasn't going to give any more than that. She took a step to leave before stopping and turning to Rachel one last time. "The name's Jetta…" she finished, and then turned and left before Rachel could respond, the door closing tightly behind her.

\- Tales of The Vanguard -

"I'm glad you all came," a voice rang out, the dim lighting and grim faces of the attending heroes casting a definitively mournful tone upon the gathering. The room was little more than a concrete bunker, but it offered a relative amount of isolation from the outside world, giving them ample solitude to plan their course of action. The speaker was none other than Jack Jordan, known to most simply as Lantern. "I think by now all of you have heard, but let's just cover it in case you've somehow missed the news."

The room grew uncomfortable, most knowing exactly where this was headed. Those who didn't only added to the discomfort in their confusion, and elected to remain silent. Lantern was silent for moment, allowing the suspense to fill the room before he continued.

"Three days ago, our friend and partner, Spider-Girl was brutally attacked and beaten to the point of near death," he began, gritting his teeth in anger. "She was drugged, poisoned, and assaulted without warning, and she has been unconscious for the past three days as a result. The perpetrator," he continued, turning on a projector to show an image of the man responsible. "Is a relatively new super criminal, and the authorities have very little information on him. So far, the cops have been referring to him simply as 'Vortex'. No one knows what he looks like. No one knows his name. No one really even knows the full extent of his powers. What we _do_ know is he appears to have an innate ability to alter the weather, either by genetic or technological means. He is ruthless in combat, lethal in ambushes, and certifiably insane on all accounts."

"He's difficult to track," a voice piped up, coming from just to the right of Lantern. The crowd parted and revealed the glowering face of Lucy, dark circles under her eyes from several sleepless nights of trying to track the criminal down while monitoring Gwen's condition. "Authorities have been unable to identify any particular areas he likes to hide out in. However, his specific power set produces a mass amount of electricity, even when not directly utilized as a thunderstorm or lightning bolt. As such, I have worked out an algorithm to scan the city and search out his possible whereabouts. We should have it narrowed down to a few locations within the hour."

Lantern nodded, asserting to the rest of the group that what Lucy said was true. "Spider-Girl has always fought beside us, and now it's time that we returned the favor. I move that we find Vortex and we teach him what happens when he messes with one of us."

"And how exactly do you plan to do that?" a voice asked, coming from a girl in the corner of the room, watching as everything went down. No one present recognized the girl, but had Rachel been there she would have known it to be Jetta right on the spot. Lucy, however, had been so involved with Gwen's condition on the night of the attack, that even she didn't recognize the girl in front of her eyes. Lantern and Lucy locked eyes, giving a quick nod before Lantern began to respond to the inquiry.

"We can't allow him to rampage through the city, especially not at the risk of innocents," he began, gauging her reaction carefully. The girl only nodded ambivalently in response.

"I agree," she concurred, studying him with a critical expression of appraisal. "What I'm asking is what exactly you plan to do about it."

Lantern watched her carefully, obviously unsure about the presence of this stranger, as well as whether she could be trusted. Eventually, however, he yielded, and he explained in further detail.

"There are more of us than there are of him," he grunted, a spark of anger flashing through his eyes. "I'm recommending we have Lucy track him down, and then we move in at the earliest given opportunity. We go in covertly, we gang up on him, and we end this once and for all. No one else gets hurt."

"And how do you plan on keeping him from doing this again?" Jetta asked, her eyes narrowing as she awaited the answer that she already knew was coming.

Lantern took a deep breath, looking to Lucy who only nodded in response. They had dealt with his kind before. When you let them go, they come back viler than ever. When you put them away, they break out stronger than before. When you try to keep them away from innocents, they kill all the more in their rage. There was no reasoning with a madman, no brawling with a trained killer. There would be no detaining a criminal who could blow the bars off of his cage just as quickly as they locked him behind them. There was only one way to end this, and it was a line that most of them were regretful to cross.

"We can't have a psychopath loose on the streets," Lantern admitted reluctantly. "I move that we go in, we find him, we take him down, and we make sure there's no chance of him coming back to finish what he started." Lantern looked around, the expressions of the group surrounding him quickly flashing between confusion, to astonishment, and finally to reluctant agreement. "I move that we kill Vortex, once and for all, and may the public thank us when we do."

Jetta nodded her assent, her eyes quietly showing her approval for the plan of action as she watched the group take in what had been said. The silence was replaced by a dull clattering of applause, gradually growing in intensity until everyone was cheering with a near-manic fixation on the course at hand, the boys and girls chanting Lantern's name as their applause gradually deepened into a sound vaguely reminiscent of a drumbeat, their expressions becoming vacantly obedient as they accepted and exalted the new course of action, abandoning every line they had ever stood for in a moment of sheer unbridled terror, with no one around to stop them or remind them of their rules. The days of criminals and enforcers were now over, replaced instead by a group of rogues intent on using whatever means were necessary to get the job done. The sheep, in their fear, had become no better than the wolves, and now nothing could stop the blurring of the lines that had already begun between hero and villain, and any casual observer would have been left with one final question in the face of the mob.

Where did the line end?


	5. Chapter V: Drawing The Line

**Chapter V: Drawing The Line**

**Date: January 17****th****, 2031**

**Time: 1:53 AM**

"What're we looking at Luce?" Lantern asked calmly, gazing at the warehouse their scanners had sent them to from a rooftop three stories up. The sky was pitch black, clouds concealing the light of the moon and stars like a blanket wrapped tightly over a lightbulb. There were about five of them on the strike team, not including Lucy, and they all were getting rather impatient in the face of vengeance. Jetta had agreed to come, but as per usual she was by far the quietest member of the group, waiting off to the side while everyone else talked it out. Occasionally one of them would say something so profound and shocking that she would grace them with a nod of the head, but otherwise she was like a statue perched on the edge of the building. Unlike the first run-in with Vortex, she was now wearing her usual costume, which consisted of a metallic armor-like top without any sleeves, green linear designs running down the sides of her top, pulsing with a strange aura of light. Her legs and feet were similarly armored, complete with the same glowing lines running down the metal. Metal gauntlets covered her forearms and part of her bicep, but her hands were left bare for an undiscernible reason.

The third member of the strike team was a blonde boy who went by the name of Frost. Frost had always been a loner and didn't really interact much with the heroes of the street, and as such it seemed he more there out of some kind of moral obligation than any personal connection to Gwen. His suit consisted of an icy-blue jacket with silver details, along with silver pants (which appeared to be coated in an ice-like material from the knees down) and ice-blue boots. His face was covered by a pair of ski goggles, the lenses of which were the same icy blue, and a mouth covering made of blue fabric. His hair was a light platinum blonde, and his skin was about as pale as one could get without achieving vampire status. A sharp, fin-like protrusion came off of the sleeve by his wrist on either fore-arm, but this appeared to be merely part of the suit, used to give an offensive edge more than anything. His hands, much like Jetta's, were bare.

Standing just to Frost's right was a man clothed in a white robe, much of his heavily-muscled abdomen exposed for absolutely no discernible reason. The most striking aspect of him, however was not his six-pack (although many teenage girls would likely have disagreed), but the white eagle's wings spreading out from either side of his back, approximately fourteen in wingspan. His hair was the same platinum blonde as Frost's, but his eyes were a white-silver color, glowing softly in the dark of the night. The man called himself Archangel, and given the angelic appearance of his powers, one had to wonder how much thought had actually gone into the name.

Finally, just to Archangel's right stood a man clothed in a black ninja-styled outfit, golden designs decorating the fabric in complex geometric patterns that were jagged enough to look like electricity. His face was completely covered except for the eyes, which were a golden yellow, and a patch of surrounding skin that appeared to be Hispanic in ethnicity. This boy was also fairly quiet, and also older than most of the group, appearing to be about 19, exceeded only by Archangel at 23. The boy called himself Voltwing, and appeared to possess electro-kinetic and invisibility powers, as well as enhanced speed and reflexes. As such, he composed much of the group's stealth-aspect, and appeared to be used to this kind of work.

"He's in there, no doubt about it," Lucy responded over their communicators. She had chosen to stay back at the warehouse and keep an eye on things remotely, Gwen resting in a back room, still unconscious almost a week after the attack. Lucy had sent Rachel home earlier that day, reminding her she needed to get some rest of her own, but in truth she was mainly concerned about Rachel overhearing their plans. Neither Rachel nor Sol would likely be too keen on their particular course of action. They'd have to live, she supposed, once they found out. After all, this guy couldn't be on the streets. "I'm picking up mass levels of bioelectrical charges. Be careful going in," she advised, watching her scanners carefully.

"Copy that," Lantern responded, turning to the group. "You all remember the plan?" he asked, eyeing them all carefully. Each one nodded in turn, and he nodded back once more before turning to the edge of the roof and quietly counting off. "Volt, you're on in three… two… one…"

Upon ending the countdown, the golden-black ninja shot down the rooftop, running down the building in a blur rivaling that of The Flash. He immediately sprinted through the warehouse entrance, blowing up several mines along the way, barely avoiding the resulting explosion due to his reflexes. Lantern grimaced in response.

"There goes our element of surprise," he muttered, immediately leaping into the air and flying through the window of the warehouse, creating a protective green energy bubble around himself as he did in case it was booby trapped as well. Instead, several lightning bolts shot his way, and the light permeated his barrier, sending a jolt through his muscles. Luckily, his suit was rubberized, or else he would have sustained a lot more damage. He had never been particularly skilled at blocking out light- or energy-based projectiles, and in many ways they were his biggest point of error. He fired several orbs of green energy back at the source, putting enough force behind them to blast through the wall behind them. Vortex, however, leapt out of the way, sending a shockwave of electrical energy along the floor straight towards Lantern.

Immediately, Lantern leapt into the air, hovering to avoid the shockwave, and Jetta leapt through the air, soaring across the street and landing with a thud on the floor, rolling to her feet. Contrary to popular belief, she did not have mass levels of increased strength, but was actually an electrical-based hero. She did, however, possess the ability to channel this electricity into her muscles and strengthen them, simulating the abilities of one with super-strength or enhanced durability for a short period of time. Using this to her advantage, she charged Vortex, grabbing him by the neck and hurling him into the wall, sending him crashing through the wood and into an adjacent room. Immediately, several bolts of lightning flew her way, but she simply walked right through them, using them as an extra power boost. A black and gold blur soared past her, but an explosion in the room hurled Voltwing through the air only a fraction of a second later, blinding Jetta and Lantern in the process. Vortex seized this opportunity and hurled himself out the window of the warehouse, landing upon the concrete on all fours and scrambling to his feet. He tried to run, but quickly found his feet covered in a coat of solid ice, unable to budge an inch. Instantly, Voltwing ran right for him, looking to slam him in the gut at full force, but Vortex extended his arm and fired a hurricane-level gale of wind right at him before he could make contact, getting blasted back into an apartment complex across the street.

The concrete of the surrounding street froze over in a layer of thick ice, Frost standing about ten feet away as he charged, ready to tackle Vortex while he couldn't move. Vortex, however, fired a bolt of lightning at the ice below him, electrocuting Frost in the process of freeing himself due to the conductive properties of the ice. He immediately fired two bolts upward at Archangel and Lantern, who pursuing Vortex from the air, both of which narrowly avoid the blows, slamming into each other as a result of their evasions. Jetta leapt from the warehouse, grabbing Vortex by the throat, but he elbowed her square in the jaw, following up with a forceful left hook and a kick to the abdomen, taking off down the road.

Lantern shot off after him, hurling green lasers of energy down at him, several of which missed their mark and blew up in surrounding buildings instead, but he was far too concerned about the fleeing enemy to be able to stop and check on that right now. Archangel circled back around, dive bombing in from above and grabbing Vortex by the shoulders, pulling him up fifty feet in the air, but a bolt of lightning shot down and electrocuted them both, Archangel falling to the ground in an unconscious, smoking pile of feathers while Vortex hovered above in a cyclone of wind. Frost fired several beams of ice into the whirlwind, but there was so much debris from the circling gales that none of the projectiles could hit their mark. Lantern surrounded himself in a protective sphere of energy, diving into the cyclone and ramming Vortex out of it, but a chunk of concrete came from just out of view and smashed into his shield, shattering it and sending him skidding across the concrete for several feet. He struggled to his feet, raising his hand to fire another blast at the criminal, but the man had suddenly vanished into thin air.

Lantern immediately whirled around, searching for Vortex, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Behind him, Archangel struggled to his feet, still smoking slightly, and Vortex ran up behind them as well, finally having extricated himself from the rubble of the apartment building he had been blown into. A quick glance back revealed that the impact of his crash had destroyed a central pillar of one of the upper levels, and two of the stories had caved in on themselves, likely killing dozens of civilians in the process. Several of the surrounding buildings were on fire from Lantern's energy blasts, and the concrete of the street possessed several craters and cracks from the force of Jetta's blasts. All the metal in the area was covered in a thick layer of ice, and most machines were no longer functional due to being hit with electrical bursts from either Voltwing, Jetta, or Vortex. In total, half the block was completely decimated.

Lantern cried out in frustration and turned on his com-link to contact Lucy. "He got away!" he roared, his fury rising up within him. How could this have happened?

"What? How?" Lucy cried out, stunned at this turn of events. They had planned this so carefully, and there should have been no way Vortex was ready for them.

"I don't know, but he did. It's like he knew we were coming," Lantern snapped, likely earning a wince from Lucy on the other end. He didn't really care. Right now he was just acting out of frustration. "We're coming back to base."

"I'll see you in five minutes."

\- Tales of The Vanguard -

Upon their arrival, Lucy was already at the door, ushering them in before closing the door behind them gently. "What happened?" She inquired, gazing at them reproachfully with a look of bewilderment in her eyes.

"I told you, it's like he knew we were coming," Lantern growled, slamming his fist into the table. "Everything we did, he already had a counter measure ready."

"There were five of you!" Lucy reprimanded, still baffled as to how they had been so outgunned when the numbers were on their side. "How could you let him get away when there were _five_ of you?" she cried out.

Lantern narrowed his eyes in anger. "Really easy to say, coming from someone who wasn't there," he pointed out, receiving a look of indignation from Lucy.

"I was watching the scanners to make sure you weren't ambushed!" she growled, glaring at him intensely.

"You were hiding-"

"I was helping!"

"You just didn't want to leave Gwen's side."

"I was making sure Gwen didn't wake up and start asking questions we weren't ready to answer!"

"Questions about what?" a voice inquired weakly from behind them. Instantly they both whirled around to see Gwen leaning against the doorframe, barely standing due to the extent of her injuries. She still had a lot of healing to do, but it appeared that she was up for the first time in just over five days. Lantern and Lucy immediately locked eyes before Lucy turned to Gwen and tried to hustle her out of the room.

"Nothing go back to bed Gwen, you need to rest," she admonished, but Gwen immediately pulled away, looking back and forth between the six heroes present in confusion, eyeing Lantern last of all.

"Jack?" She whispered curiously, unsure as to the reason for his visit. "What are you doing here?" Everyone in the room was silent, unsure of what to say. Gwen waited a minute for an answer before her eyes were drawn to one of the television screens flashing in the corner. Immediately she made her way over, leaning against the wall for support as she gazed at the screens in confusion, footage of the fight and resulting destruction plastered over every channel. Her eyes widened slightly and she stood there in silence a moment before turning around, gazing at them with a slight look of fear. "You did this?" she asked, her voice wavering slightly out of confusion.

The group locked eyes and Lantern was the first to speak. "We went after Vortex to take him down, but the fight caused some collateral damage…"

"Collateral damage?" Gwen restated pointedly. "You blew up an apartment complex!"

"Vortex-"

"Don't try to pin all of this on Vortex!" she snapped. "Who fired those energy beams at the buildings Jack? Who left the civilians trapped in the rubble to die?" she stated flatly, confusion and anger lacing her words, along with a tint of what appeared to be fear. "You weren't aiming to capture Vortex, you wanted to kill him!"

"He tried to kill you!" Lantern admonished, gazing at her, eyes wide with shock at how she was reacting. "We were getting back at him for you!"

"That's not our call to make, Jack. We don't get to decide who lives and who dies, it doesn't work like that."

"Oh, and what does the princess know about death?" Lantern sneered, malice dripping from his voice.

"Everything!" She shouted. "I've seen enough death for a lifetime, and I know how it sits in a heart, and I can't condone killing people out of justice to me!"

"We were just after Vortex!" Jetta shouted, glaring at Gwen with every ounce of rage in her body. "I thought you would be happy about that!"

Gwen only stared back at her, open-mouthed in surprise. "Happy?" she asked. "Happy about three burning buildings, a collapsed apartment complex, twenty-three dead bystanders, and all of it in the name of doing some kind of service to me? Oh I'm elated!"

She turned to the group, eyeing each of them carefully with a look of complete disbelief. "I thought we stood to protect people, not kill them."

"Protect them by leaving Vortex on the street?" Voltwing growled. "Fat chance."

"Protect them by taking Vortex in to stand fair trial," she corrected. "To give the civilians a chance to decide what to do for themselves, to prevent collateral damage, and to not play God with the lives of innocent bystanders, all while we try to glorify ourselves."

"I can't believe you're this ignorant," Lantern muttered. "I thought you were smarter than this."

"And I thought you were better than this," Gwen shot back. "Tell them Lucy," she began, turning to Lucy who had her back turned to Gwen, arms crossed as she stared at the wall. "Lucy…?"

"I want you out of my house," Lucy stated flatly, refusing to look back at her. Gwen stepped back, her eyes wide with hurt and confusion as she gazed at her friend.

"What?" she inquired, her voice suddenly sounding younger than Lucy had ever heard it.

"I want you out of this house," Lucy repeated flatly, turning to her and pointing to the door. "Now."

Gwen stared at her in shock, blinking back tears as she gazed around at them all before lowering her head and limping to the door. The group watched as she left, each wearing varying expressions of outrage, confusion, shock, and indignation as they watched her leave. Lantern glared as she approached the door, watching her leave.

"I always wondered why they left you, you know," he spat, causing Gwen to stop cold in her tracks. "I guess they saw you for the coward you are and couldn't take it anymore," he continued as Gwen's fists clenched, her muscles tense and teeth gritted. "Or maybe they didn't leave. Maybe they died the same cowardly, back-stabbing way that you're living now. No one really knows" he sneered, malice dripping from every word. "No one except you. Why don't you tell us Bugs? Tell us all about what happened the night you became the sniveling orphan you are today."

"That's enough, Jack," Jetta tried to intervene.

"No, I'm not done," he snapped. "I want to hear about why no one wants you. I want to know why when the rest of us were off celebrating birthdays and going on play dates, Gwen here was picking through trash cans on the streets, looking for her next meal. I want to know why no one ever adopted her, and most of all I want to know what the hell happened to her family that's so bad she won't even tell Rachel."

"Jack, come on, she's already leaving," Frost coaxed, trying to salvage the situation.

"I'm not finished!" Jack roared, and silence filled the room, Gwen trembling in the doorframe out of the flood of bad memories Jack was forcing her to relive. He watched for a few seconds, trying to decide what button he had to press to get the best reaction. "You know she had a sister?" he taunted. "A brother too. No one really knows what happened to them, just that no one's seen them since. Were they too ashamed of their cowardly sister? Or were they just cowards themselves?" he spat, pausing a moment more. "You know, maybe Vortex was doing us all a favor. Maybe we don't need you anyway."

Silence filled the room, all eyes going to Gwen to see how she would react. Tears streamed down her face, though her face was barely visible to them. Throughout the whole scene she had barely moved a muscle, and her breathing was rapid and shallow, indicating that she was trying to hold back the flood of tears that threatened to come. Quietly, she wiped away the tears from her eyes, staggered forward, and stepped out the door, taking one last look back at them, her eyes filled with an expression of total pain and betrayal, and closing the door behind her on her way out, leaving the six vigilantes behind in a pit of silence and fury.


	6. Chapter VI: The Eye of The Storm

**Chapter VI: The Eye of The Storm**

**Date: January 17****th****, 2031**

**Time: 3:05 AM**

Rachel was stirred from her slumber by a quick series of quiet raps from her door. They were soft, and as such they didn't wake her up right away, but they repeated every few seconds, steadily increasing in a crescendo of intensity, and eventually she got to her feet, put on her slippers, and walked to front door groggily, creaking it open curiously, trying not to wake her father in the other room. She was stunned, however, to find Gwen leaning against the doorframe, her eyes red and puffy from crying, and obviously still nursing several major injuries. Immediately, she waved her inside, gently helping her over to the couch to rest before sitting down beside her, her expression riddled with concern.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel inquired, gazing at her friend intently. "You're supposed to be at Lucy's. When did you even wake up?"

"About an hour ago," Gwen responded, wincing as she did so. She paused a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase what happened, then apparently gave up and simply stated the situation flat out. "They went after Vortex."

"Who did?" Rachel asked in confusion.

"Lucy, Lantern, a couple others. I think one of them was there the night Vortex attacked me," Gwen continued, sniffling slightly. "They tried to kill him Rachel. We never deliberately try to kill people…"

Rachel gazed at her friend sadly, biting her lip in worry. While it was true they had vowed never to deliberately kill, at the same time this was a psychopath they were talking about. Could it be Gwen's own moral code was clouding her judgement? "Gwen, I hear what you're saying, and I'm not saying what they were doing is right by any means, but this is a psychopath we're talking about. He was going to kill you."

"It's not just Vortex, Rachel," Gwen sighed. "Twenty-three civilians died in the fight."

"Vortex did that?" Rachel asked, her eyes widening. Gwen shook her head in response.

"They did. Unintentionally, of course, but they did. And they didn't make any effort to save them when it happened either. It's on every channel."

"Did you confront them about it?" Rachel prodded, trying to figure out how they could salvage the situation. Gwen gave a short nod, biting her lip gently as tears came to her eyes once more, remembering how they had treated her once she did. She lowered her head into her hands and began to sob quietly, bad memories flooding through her mind as she did so. Rachel immediately embraced her friend, holding her tightly in order to reassure her, but it was to no avail.

"What happened?" Rachel asked gently, rubbing her friend's back to calm her down. Gwen sniffled and wiped away her tears, trying to calm down enough to answer.

"They said… they said that I was a coward. That my family deserved to die, and that no one wanted me because I was a coward and a freak. They said that Vortex was right to get rid of me, and they'd be better off without me anyway," she whimpered, fighting to speak through her tears. "Lucy kicked me out of the warehouse…"

Rachel's eyes widened in surprise before gradually switching to an expression of anger for her friend. Gwen was in no condition to be out of bed, let alone leave the warehouse or endure the kind of trauma she was in right now. "Where are they?" she growled, every bone in her body wanting to give them a piece of her mind.

"The warehouse…" Gwen whispered, her head still in her hands. Rachel immediately shot to her feet and went to the door, but upon reaching it she noticed Gwen was still sitting on the couch with her head in her hands, very clearly still trying to stop the tears. Rachel bit her lip, still wanting to confront the group, but realizing now that her friend needed far more help than shouting at Lucy and the others would provide. Quietly, she walked back over and sat back down beside her friend, draping a blanket over her shoulders while they sat in near silence.

"Maybe they're right," Gwen murmured a few moments later. Rachel immediately shot her a look of reproach, shaking her head forcefully.

"They aren't right," she assured her.

"But who _does_ want me Rachel?" Gwen inquired. "I had you, I had Michael, and I had Lucy. Now I don't even have her…"

"That's not your fault."

"If no one wants me, how can that _not_ be my fault?"

"People want you, Gwen."

"Like who?"

"Like me. Like Michael. Like your family did right up until… you know."

Gwen clenched her fists, trying to push those memories as far from her mind as she could. Unfortunately, so far that had been to no avail, and the memories just kept on resurfacing. She looked up at her friend with tear-stained eyes, bloodshot from her sobbing, her lip quivering in pain – both physical and emotional – and began to speak once more, her voice trembling as she did.

"Fifty-three showings," she stated quietly. "That's how many times people contemplated adopting me after my family died. Fifty-three families came to look at me, and not a single one of them wanted me. Fifty-three families came, and thirty-seven of them ended up adopting a different kid. Fifty-three families came, and sixteen of them decided they'd rather take no kid than take me. They didn't want the super-powered freak. They didn't want the girl who was still emotionally scarred from watching her parents die right in front of her. They didn't want anything to do with me. So, tell me Rachel, how is that _not_ something to do with me?"

Rachel gazed at her in shock for a moment, unsure of how to respond, especially since a lot of this information was completely new to her. Gwen never opened up about her life after her family's death, let alone the details of that night, and this was by far the most open she'd been in the years Rachel had known her.

"You never told me about that…" she whispered, realizing now just how deeply her friend must be hurting, and wishing more than ever that she had seen it sooner.

"I don't tell people a lot of things," Gwen admitted. "It's easier to hide the pain if no one knows."

"It's also harder to heal," Rachel pointed out. Gwen nodded in concession. "Have you ever told _anyone_ about what happened that night?"

Gwen shook her head. "Those memories are… they're just too hard to remember, let alone explain to anyone."

"If you ever want to try…"

"Rachel, if I ever want to try, you'll be one of the first to know," Gwen assured her. "You're like my sister, you know that… but I can't talk about it yet. I don't know if I'll ever be able to talk about it. Some things are just best kept private."

Rachel nodded in understanding. She certainly knew what it was like to have experiences you didn't want to share with anyone, even your closest friends. _Especially_ your closest friends, even. Some things are simply better left in the past. They sat there a few minutes more in complete silence before Rachel quietly pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Michael, letting him know what happened. Not two minutes had passed before her phone buzzed quietly at his response, and she saw that he was on his way.

About five minutes later, he was rapping lightly upon the front door, his confusion clearly evident on his face. Rachel quickly filled him in on what had happened, his expression gradually morphing from one of befuddlement to one of fury by the end of the explanation. Upon seeing Gwen's current state of depression, however, he immediately softened and sat beside her, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You okay, Bugs?"

In all honesty, it was a terrible question. She was very clearly not okay, she did not appear to be okay, and it was likely she wouldn't be okay for some time to come. Nonetheless, his concern somehow made her feel slightly better, and she nodded her assent at the inquiry – more for his benefit than for her own if she was perfectly honest.

It was at that moment that the television flickered to life – though no one had touched either the remote or the device itself – and began to transmit a video of a very angry-looking Lantern, fully clothed in his crime-fighting attire. The screen itself glowed much brighter than normal, and the sound of the background was far louder than it should have been given the limitations of the speakers. Someone was tampering with the device remotely to send a message, and they wanted to be sure it was received. A quick glance out the window showed it wasn't just their television, either – every screen in sight was experiencing the same phenomenon, and the most viable cause was unfortunately one of the least desired: Lucy.

"Attention, New York," he began, his face calm and voice void of tension, but his eyes marked with a distinct touch of arrogance as he began his soliloquy. "By now I'm sure most of you are aware of the battle that ensued tonight between several of the cities heroes and a masked criminal named Vortex. Several days ago, this outlaw attacked one of New York's own out of cold-blood, sending her into a coma for roughly a week at absolutely no provocation. In our attempts to bring him to justice, the man created a vast amount of collateral damage that the squadron was, unfortunately, not able to contain."

"Like hell you weren't!" Gwen growled, her eyes flashing, but Rachel quickly laid a hand on her shoulder as a non-verbal reminder that the communication was indeed one way and back-talking wasn't going to get them anywhere right now.

"The man escaped, but he will be brought to justice. Certain heroes, however, did not agree with the actions taken, and have rejected the interests of the city. Until such time as these heroes realize that the needs of the many outweigh the desires of a few, they will be treated as rebels by me and my partners. Anyone caught aiding them will be considered an accomplice, and I am requesting assistance in locating the masked vigilante known as Spider-Girl. If anyone knows of her whereabouts, please alert the proper authorities or send the information to one of the contacts listed below," he continued, several phone numbers, names, and email addresses popping up on the bottom of the screen like shameless advertising on a bad infomercial. Gwen, Rachel, and Michael all looked to each other, stunned at this turn of events and rather at a loss as to what there really was to say. Lantern, however, was not finished yet.

"And Spider-Girl," he began once more, his eyes suddenly gaining a kind of fury and passion they had never before witnessed in him as he addressed his audience. "If you have any ideas of trying to stop me, I highly advise you reconsider and turn yourself over before we have to come after you. If you hand yourself over, we'll forgive your transgressions against us and move on as if this ordeal never happened. But if you continue to resist, I will come for you. If you wish to hand yourself over, I am in Times Square awaiting your arrival. If not, the same will hold true. Consider your actions carefully."

The screen immediately flickered out, everyone blinking their eyes rapidly as their eyes adjusted to the sudden lack of light in the room. They remained silent a few minutes more, each trying to figure out exactly how to best handle the situation. It was Rachel who spoke first.

"You can't go Gwen, you know that," she warned. "You're not in any condition for a fight, and you can't turn yourself over. There's too much at stake."

She stopped there, and waited for her friend to respond, but none came. Confused, she glanced over to her friend only to find the spot she had occupied only moments prior vacant. In their absorption over Lantern's challenge and their blindness after the television's deactivation, Gwen had slipped off without a word. By now, she was well on her way to Times Square, and Rachel and Michael both knew there was no chance she was turning herself over. Gwen wasn't on her way to surrender. She was on her way to fight.


	7. Chapter VII: Showdown In Times Square

**Chapter VII: Showdown In Times Square**

**Date: January 17****th****, 2031**

**Time: 4:03 AM**

Lantern hovered over Times Square celestially, appearing almost god-like as a large crowd of bystanders gazed up at him in awe and wonder. The black of his suit blended seamlessly with the pitch-black shadow of the night, and yet the accompanying green radiance was as bright as the billboards around him – An appropriate juxtaposition, given the terrifying controversy of his recent actions. His face was stoic and grim, but the citizens below were marked with a far wider array of emotion. Some were carrying a clear sense of distrust or skepticism, yet others appeared almost reverent of the sentinel guarding them from above. By now, everyone had heard his speech, and many believed every word of it. After all, what reason did they have not to?

Lantern's gaze, however, was not nearly as fixed as the crowd assembled below him, and his vision flitted from one rooftop to the other like the eyes of a spectator at a tennis match. It was a search that was clearly meant for one specific target, and there was no doubt in his mind that the target would indeed come. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, but eventually he caught sight of a black silhouette swinging at the far end of the avenue. It was very clearly a girl, clothed in a full-body suit. Her white eye-lenses glimmered in the night and the red highlights of her suit emitted a soft crimson aura, but the black of her suit gave a mysterious aura about her, her shadow dancing over the rooftops like leaves in an autumn breeze. Only a moment had passed before she gave one last tug of her webline and flipped through the air, corkscrewing halfway through to latch onto a billboard and hoist herself up in one graceful swing, perching upon its frame with a superhuman ease. Yet, where the bystanders would once have applauded in excitement and wonder, they now cowered in fear, seeing their former protector replaced by an imagined demon of unfathomable proportions. Lantern's body language only harshened upon her arrival.

"Come to turn yourself in Bugs?" he spat, his old term of endearment now carrying a far more hostile edge.

"I'm coming to give you one last chance to stand down Lantern," she responded calmly, desperately trying to keep her cool. "These people didn't do anything, they could get hurt."

"They would have been hurt by Vortex too, but you had no problem letting him run free," he growled, the crowd now stirring up for the battle as well, their expressions taking on a mob-like mentality as they gave in to his spineless propaganda. It was quickly becoming clear that if she was going to make it out of this, Gwen had to get the public to understand what had truly happened, and fast.

"I said I didn't want to kill him, there's a difference," she corrected him, causing several citizen's eyes to widen at this unexpected turn. "Lantern too many people have died tonight, don't make me do this."

"You made your choice!" Lantern screamed. "And now, you have to live with it. Get her!" He roared to the crowd, but many of the bystanders were now looking at him with shock. Who could they trust? Who was the liar? Everyone knew their views, many expressed them, but no one really knew. Even if they were right in their beliefs, how could they comprehend what was real and what had been fed to them on a plate of deception? How could they decipher the truth from the lies or see past the mirage of illusion? Yet, confusion has irrational effects upon the mind, and instead of refusing to act until certain, many instead refused to wait, launching into street fights and verbal warfare as they all tried to apprehend the vigilante they felt responsible, yet then in turn tried to stop those they deemed to be apprehending the wrong person. What had begun as a heated dispute between Lantern and Gwen had now become a city-wide barrage of mob mentalities, and no one was spared from its reach.

Lantern was the first to recognize this issue, and quickly fired a beam of green energy towards Gwen who leapt off of her perch and corkscrewed over it, firing several web pellets in retaliation as she clung to the nearby wall. One of the pellets caught Lantern in the eyes by surprise, blinding him momentarily. He quickly ripped off the sticky blob from his eyes and whirled around to look for Gwen, but she had vanished into thin air. Not a moment had passed, however, before a massive sonic boom erupted from above him, causing him to cover his ears in pain. The blast was fired from a device implanted into Gwen's Web Gauntlets, and she landed only a fraction of a second later, using the momentum of her leap to spin around and deliver a side-kick into Lantern's chest. He was sent flying onto the crimson stairs of Times Square, struggling hastily to his feet as his ring pulsed vibrantly in anger and surprise.

"People are going to get hurt Lantern! Is this really what you want?" She pleaded, trying to prevent any further escalation of the situation.

"They were getting hurt anyway, I tried to save them!" Lantern roared, creating a massive fist of light and slamming it into her full force. She didn't have enough time to react, and she was sent flying down the block, slamming into a parked car and shattering the windshield before rolling to her feet and tapping a button on her belt. Instantly, four mechanical limbs sprung out from the back of the suit, built like spider-legs but made of a sturdy, silver-colored metal. A light pulsed from the tip of one of the pincers and a laser quickly ripped through the air, aimed straight for Lantern's torso. The blow would have been non-lethal, but Lantern side-stepped it without any real struggle, so in the end it didn't matter too much. Two massive walls erupted around Gwen and began to close around her, hoping to crush her between them, but she fired a sonic blast at the ground beneath her almost instantly and was thrusted into the air, somersaulting over the top of the left-hand wall before swinging onto the nearest billboard.

Two more lasers erupted from the pincers, but by flying over the first Lantern unwittingly got himself caught directly in the path of the second, causing a trail of smoke to rise from the fabric of his suit. He winced in pain before firing a rocket of green energy towards the billboard. Gwen leapt aside at the last second, but was blasted away from the resulting shatter of the billboard. She fired a webline at a passing lamppost and swung back around, launching herself at Lantern at nearly sixty miles per hour feet-first. He created an energy barrier around him, but she shattered right through it, cushioning the blow at best. Lantern felt the wind leave his lungs as the blow connected with his gut, but he nonetheless grabbed onto her leg and whirled her around, slamming her headfirst into a parked car before taking off into the air with her in hand. Gwen immediately thrust an elbow into his sternum and threw her head backwards to connect with his own, dazing him enough to let her go. She latched onto him with a webline of her own and pulled the line taut, hurling him back towards the concrete at full speed. He managed to shield himself from any real damage, but the concrete was splintered in several directions from the impact of his landing.

Gwen felt a tingling sensation in her temples and immediately leapt off the wall she was stuck to before a conjured energy-hammer bashed through the exact spot she had occupied only seconds earlier. She landed on the ground unharmed, but Lantern immediately punched at her face with constructed spiked-knuckles, and she had to duck to avoid the blow. Another duck and two sidesteps later, she did a handspring over him and whirled around to knee him in the side, earning a quick elbow to the face in return. Stingers erupted from her wrists, and she lashed out with them like daggers, attempting to use the tranquilizer fluid within them to calm him down. He ducked under her strike and attempted to tackle her while she was open, but Gwen instantly leapt aside to avoid his assault, firing a sonic blast to send him careening through a shop window.

Several spikes shot out from the empty window pane, heading straight for her head, and she leapt and corkscrewed in between them only to be rammed by a full-speed jet-construct, pulling her up into the sky. She kicked off of it after being carried about twelve stories up and clicked another button on her belt to unfurl a flap of webbing beneath each arm, fastened as a sail to glide through the air when she had enough momentum going. She careened downwards, noticing several missile constructs sailing just behind her in her peripheral vision. She pulled upwards to level out her course and glide just over the cement, but the missiles followed her every move. She flew full-speed ahead, grabbing the hand of a civilian who stood stock-still in her path and pulling him out of the way, hurling him to the side and firing a webbed net to catch his fall now that he was out of harm's way. Instantly she adjusted her course and dove straight downward into an open manhole and heard the construct explode behind her, having missed the opening on entry. Seconds later, Lantern streamed inside, chasing after her with everything he had, and she corkscrewed through the air, landing on the ground and firing several strands of webbing at the walls of the tunnel, catching him in a makeshift spider-web. Instantly a blade-construct cut him free and he rolled a gigantic green energy-sphere directly for her, forcing her to leap to the ceiling and back out the open cover in order to avoid its course.

The cement beneath her feet split only moments later as a drill burrowed through the earth, forcing Gwen to latch onto a nearby traffic light and fire several more lasers at Lantern. Despite all his tricks and constructs, Lantern hadn't quite figured out how to cover one particular weak-spot, and that was that his barriers were only energy themselves, meaning lasers and beams could often permeate them just as any beam can intersect one another. Many of his predecessors had found ways to block beams and rays, but Lantern was still trying to figure that out, and as such it was still a viable chink in his armor. The lasers pierced his defenses with ease and singed his leg, causing him to roar in pain. A mace erupted above her, slamming down to try and crush her beneath it, but she fired a sonic pulse directly into it, shattering it into thousands of energy fractals.

Suddenly, a piercing pain erupted in her side, and she found a green dagger of light stuck into her side. She ripped it out and flung it back in Lantern's direction, but he only ducked and summoned a massive catapult, which flung several large boulders at her, one of which caught her in the side and sent her flying into a brick wall. She struggled to her feet, sidestepping an energy fist and firing several web pellets at his head, distracting him for a few seconds. She wasn't fully recovered from her previous injuries at Vortex's hand, and in reality there was no way she was in any sort of fighting condition. She had no choice, however, and it was perfectly clear the Lantern wasn't afraid to fight dirty.

A dome erupted around her, and it quickly began to shrink, clearly designed to crush her within, and Gwen quickly realized her sonic gauntlets were still recharging from their last pulse. She reached her arms out, trying to use her own strength to hold the walls apart, but they continued to steadily shrink. She was almost entirely encased when Lantern cried out in pain and the walls immediately vanished. Gwen looked up to see Lantern's clothes smoking, sparks flying from the ground at his feet while a flaming boy in a suit of red and yellow armor soared overhead, diving straight down for them. From the nearest rooftop, Rachel leapt down to join them, unsheathing her claws as she did. Lantern, who quickly realized that the odds were now three against one, smiled grimly before gazing around at the wreckage of their battle.

"You really aren't any better than we are, you know that? This carnage is on you too."

"You tried to kill me," Gwen snarled. "You almost killed several bystanders, I had to save them!" Lantern only shook his head in fury and took one last look around him.

"There's one thing I hate more than a liar, and that's a hypocrite. You've just qualified for both. Think on that while you're on your high horse Bugs," he spat, and then bolted into the air, leaving a trail of green sparks behind him as he soared through the night, likely back to the warehouse.

Michael and Rachel both turned to Gwen, their faces plastered with worry as she gripped her side painfully. She was still bleeding from her knife-wound, and she was pretty well banged-up from the rest of the fight as well. It was a wonder she wasn't more injured given how much recovering she still had to do, and they all knew it.

"What were you thinking?" Michael questioned her, his tone laced with both worry and frustration – a tone both he and Rachel were quite used to using with Gwen. "You could have been killed, Gwen."

"I couldn't just hide while he lied to the city," she explained, obviously trying to defend herself. "By coming out her some of the city believes us, but if I had hid away it would only have looked like we were in the wrong."

"Then let us back you up," Michael advised, laying an armored hand on his friend's shoulder. "You have us for a reason Gwen."

Gwen nodded slowly in response, then groaned as a wave of pain shuddered through her body. She staggered a bit, Michael instantly reaching to support her, and then leaned against the wall for support. A quick glance around showed that the block wasn't in much better shape than she was. Several billboards were shattered into web-like designs of cracks in their design, the concrete often blackened or crushed from the force of the two super-humans blows. Cars littered the streets, often in pieces from the explosions of Lantern's constructs, and windows were blown apart all across the avenue. Yet, if it hadn't been for Gwen's efforts, things would have been far worse in regards to civilian casualties. The lesson, though, was clear: This wreckage was from a one on one battle, and they were outnumbered six to three. There was only one way any of them were going to set this right, and they all knew it. Rachel, however, was the first one to voice it.

"We're going to need back-up."


	8. Chapter VIII: When Push Comes To Shove

**Chapter VIII: When Push Comes To Shove**

**Date: January 17****th****, 2031**

**Time: 7:13 AM**

"Are you sure about this Rachel?"

"Of course I'm sure. These guys are some of the best in the business, trust me," Rachel assured her friends. The trio was currently at the door to a run-down practical joke shop in the Bronx. It appeared to have been closed for years – a fact Rachel quickly confirmed to be true – but Rachel was adamant that this was the place to go for reinforcements. Gwen was skeptical, as she had voiced several times, but in the end they weren't in much of a position to be picky. In the end, it was best just to roll with it at this point. They'd spent a good deal of time getting out here without drawing attention to themselves as it was – Lantern and his posse could be anywhere after all. After another few seconds of silence, just to make sure there were no last minute objections, Rachel opened the door quietly and led the way inside.

The shop, which looked to be a hole from the outside, was somehow in even worse condition on the interior. The shelves, many of which were actually devoid of merchandise, were dusty and held several cobwebs each, clearly having been out of use for some time. The paint of the walls was scuffed and covered in dark splotches, desperately in need of a fresh coat (or twelve). No customers were present other than themselves, shockingly, but a boy of roughly their age stood behind the counter playing absently on his phone. He seemed not to notice them, even as they watched him, and it wasn't until Rachel gave a slight cough in his direction that he glanced up to see them, his face instantly widening into an imp-like grin. His teeth were so white they could probably have been modeled on a gum commercial or something of the sort, and his eyes glistened with a mischievous twinkle that instantly stirred simultaneous feelings of both distrust and appreciation for the boy. Gwen, who was well-accustomed to mischief, took an instant liking to him.

"We're here to pick up an order for a special celebration," Rachel addressed him nonchalantly. Gwen realized, of course, that she was talking in code, but it was still bewildering to watch. She was never the stealthy type, and even when she was it was more the classic "sneak through the air vents" type of stealth, not this 007 protocol. Frankly, she had such a hard time taking the boy seriously that she was a bit surprised he knew what Rachel was talking about. Maybe he didn't, for that matter. Given this impression, one could only guess how surprised she was when he instantly turned very serious and responded back in a code of his own.

"Oh yeah, I remember the order. Three boxes of Lincoln Logs, right?" he inquired, looking to Gwen and Michael curiously. "I forget some of the merchandise. The place isn't such great shape, you can see."

Rachel smiled slightly, nodding in agreement. "There are a few cobwebs, I guess. The heat's a bit over the top, though. Air conditioning is a useful invention Isaac."

The boy – Isaac, it would seem – shrugged at that, and then gestured towards a room in the back of the building. "I believe your order was in here. Feel free to come on in," he finished, and then turned to show them the backroom. Gwen and Michael both looked to each other unsurely, neither really certain whether they were supposed to follow or not, but the girl quickly beckoned them along and they followed obediently from behind. The back room, sadly, was not any better than the rest of the store, and at this point Gwen and Michael were very confused as to what exactly was going on. This confusion only escalated when Isaac and Rachel kept on walking straight through the drywall in front of them. They stared at the wall a moment, their eyes wide as dinner plates, when suddenly Rachel's hand reached through the wall and pulled them in one at a time, rolling her eyes at them jokingly upon arrival.

"Wait, wait, hold up," Michael stammered, glancing furiously between the room in front of them and the now clear portal behind them in astonishment. "When did this become Platform 9 and ¾, and where the heck are we?"

"This is the hot head, huh Rachel?" Isaac inquired happily from a few feet away, the impish grin now back on his face. "You said he'd probably be a bit hyper when he saw this the first time. You neglected to mention the Harry Potter references, though."

"He's pretty easily flustered," Rachel laughed, punching Michael's arm gently. "Michael, Gwen, this is Isaac Kamin. Isaac's my point guy when it comes to any and all things in the way of disguises."

"Kamin, huh?" Michael began slowly, trying – and failing – to strike up some small talk. "That's quite an oriental name for someone so… not."

"Oh my God, Michael, you can't just ask someone why they're white," Gwen chimed in from behind, instantly eliciting a burst of laughter from Rachel once she caught the reference. Michael glanced back at her with an expression that read something along the lines of "really? Is this the time?" Gwen only gave a slow but silent knuckle bump to Rachel in response, lowering her head sheepishly, unable to avoid grinning slightly.

"I can look like anything I want to," Isaac responded lightly, the trademark grin plastered once again onto his face. "For all you know I could be black, or Hispanic, or a democrat." He caught wind of the surprised look on Michael's face at the last comment, mainly because it wasn't a race, and quickly looked over at him curiously. "Don't get me wrong, I could be a republican too. I don't go out for politics much, it seems like quite a bore to me. Words only go so far you know? Besides, politicians don't know how to take a joke."

"What do you mean you can look like anything you want to?" Michael asked confusedly. "I'm looking right at you. Isaac stared at him a second more, smiled once more, and suddenly was replaced by a stunning blonde girl of about sixteen, attractive enough to be a model. Michael stammered once more, and the girl was once again replaced by Isaac, who began laughing his head off.

"Priceless! The look on your face is just priceless. Rachel, please tell me you're seeing this, because this is fantastic!" the boy exclaimed, tears brimming in his eyes while Gwen was rolling on the floor in the corner in fits of her own laughter. Rachel sighed and cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Isaac?" she began. "The agreement we discussed?"

"You just want to suck the joy out of everything," Gwen grumbled from behind her, earning a sharp look from both Rachel and Michael. She quickly raised her hands in surrender and sat silently to wait. She had accepted long ago that she had no clue what was going on, now was not the time to start pretending.

"I thought you said there were going to be two of them Rachel?" Michael inquired.

"There are big shot," a voice said from behind them, and they all whirled around to see a blue monkey sitting behind them in a red t-shirt and jeans. Well, it wasn't _really_ a monkey, but the boy looked a decent amount like one, complete with a tail and pointed teeth to match.

"Mike, Gwen, this is Erik Wagner," Rachel explained, gesturing to the boy. "Erik, this is Mike and Gwen."

"A pleasure," the boy said, bowing slightly to Gwen before shaking hands with Michael. "Rachel said you needed help with something? She was surprisingly secretive over the phone."

"Some of the other heroes have gone a bit… off the edge," Rachel explained slowly. "We aren't sure what caused it, because for a lot of them this is a pretty severe shift, but regardless they've begun to take more drastic measures than we ever allowed. A lot of people are getting hurt because of it. When Gwen here called them out on it, they turned the whole city against her."

"So how did you get wrapped up in this?" Erik inquired, addressing Michael and Rachel.

"We saved her hide when she tried to face one of them down while she was still recovering," Michael responded, half-messing with Gwen and half-reminding her not to be so reckless in the future. "They didn't take that too well."

"And you want us to do what exactly?" Isaac asked, speaking up. "Hide you away? We can do that with no real issue, you know that Rachel."

"It's more pressing than that," Rachel assured him. "We can't just hide away, people will get hurt. But there are six of them and three of us, the odds aren't exactly in our favor. So, we thought we'd ask you to-"

"You thought you'd ask us to break our one rule," Isaac finished with a sigh. Rachel nodded slowly, but Michael and Gwen both looked to each other in confusion.

"Um… one rule?" Gwen asked, raising her hand sheepishly. Erik nodded grimly.

"We help people go undercover. We run covert ops. We even go in for an undercover gig occasionally, but we never go out for public vigilantism."

"But what if people need help?" Gwen inquired, looking at them in confusion. "You don't mean you just stand by and watch, do you?"

"It's not that simple, Gwen," Erik explained. "Look at me for crying out loud, I look like a monkey. I go out in public and people freak out before I can help. I cause more harm than good. Isaac here could disguise me, but what happens if he accidentally slips up and removes the illusion?"

"I can't keep something going forever," Isaac confirmed. "It takes too much brain power. And besides, what would I do in a fight? I lift things with my mind, I make illusions, I fool people, but other than the telekinesis – which I'll be honest and admit I haven't tested fully – none of that wins a fight on its own."

"We're not asking you to win a fight alone," Gwen pleaded. "But if you're working in tandem with other people then maybe you could-"

"We can't, and that's all there is to it," Isaac stated flatly, and Erik nodded sadly in agreement.

"But if you would just try-"

"The last time I tried, every citizen in the vicinity took up a weapon and tried to chase me down," Erik sighed. "The police went after me because of my appearance, the victims were more scared of me than of the criminals. I know you want help, but I promise I'm not the kind of help that you want."

"And what about you?" Gwen asked turning to Isaac. "I know you say your powers aren't helpful, but what's your reason for not trying?"

"That's my business," Isaac responded flatly.

"People are going to get hurt," Gwen pleaded desperately.

"And it'd only be worse if I was there!" Isaac grunted, turning away. "That's what happens when we use our powers, people get hurt. Tell me Gwen, if people like us never went out there, never showed ourselves, would this kind of thing happen?" Silence hung in the air for a moment. "No. It wouldn't. Because by us being there, it prompts villains to try harder, to dig deeper into themselves and it escalates to a point where now the police can't help, and the moment something goes wrong on our end the city is in the midst of a disaster." Isaac's shoulders slumped at his words, and Gwen couldn't help but notice a vague familiarity in the motions and the words. They reminded her of something, but she couldn't quite place who. "Look, I get what you guys are saying, and I get what you're trying to do, and I respect it. Honestly, I do. But, I'm not like you. I'm not a hero who dashes in to save the day; I can't use my powers to help people. Even if I wanted to…"

Gwen put a hand on his shoulder gently. "It can't possibly hurt to try… we need your help, and frankly I don't see how things could possibly get any worse. Things happen sometimes, things we don't expect or intend, but that doesn't mean we're supposed to shut ourselves out. People need us Isaac…"

She looked around at the others for assistance, but her eyes were quickly drawn to Erik, who was watching her with a curious expression. It wasn't his curiosity that drew her attention, however, but more the intensity of his eyes. She had never seen such a strange pool of emotion before, somehow hopeful and skeptical at the same time. It was clear that Erik had seen things that would haunt him for years to come, things she may or may not even be able to understand, but what was remarkable was that rather than tuning her out, as Isaac was currently attempting, Erik seemed to be soaking her in. He was examining, looking for sincerity and kindness and, possibly above all, a source of hope. Rachel and Sol were watching the scene quietly, watching as Erik and Gwen had what appeared to be a silent conversation with nothing but their eyes. They were kindred spirits, it seemed, and his expression (which initially held far more skepticism than hope) slowly morphed into one of understanding. He gave took one last look at Gwen's face, gauging it for something that possibly only he knew, and then turned to Rachel, giving her a slow nod before walking over to Isaac and placing a hand gently on his shoulder.

"Isaac," he started gently. "It's time. You know that as well as I do…"

"No," the boy responded quietly. "It can't be."

"People need us Isaac. They need help."

"I'm not a hero," Isaac stated flatly, refusing to look up.

"I'd say you shouldn't try to be. It's not who you are."

"Then what am I Erik?" Isaac asked quietly, unsure whether or not he really wanted to hear the answer.

"You're a disturbance," Erik admitted. "In the best sense of the word. You don't like to fix messes, because they just need to be fixed later. You toy with them until they work even if something goes wrong."

The room was quiet for a minute as everyone soaked that in. Isaac wasn't really sure how to respond at first, and it took him several seconds to speak again. "So why would you want me in a fight?"

"Because sometimes that's exactly what we need. A disturbance. Someone who can distract the guy in front of us, who can make a situation work, no matter how bad, until someone else can come along to fix it. We aren't saints, you and I. We don't fix everything in front of us. But we can fight until someone comes along who does. We may not be the final army, but we can be the first wave. A bluff. An attempt. And, when push comes to shove," he finished. "A disturbance. And you can be sure that it'll be the biggest disturbance possible."

Isaac looked up at Erik curiously, watching him with a newfound admiration. Gwen didn't know either of these boys. Neither did Michael. Neither did Rachel, if they were perfectly honest. Yet, Isaac knew this boy, and if there was one person that he would consider a friend, who he trusted without question, it was Erik. He bit his lip a second more, his eyes wrought with indecision, and then he took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and stood up, turning to look Gwen in the eye with a look of determination.

"We're in."


	9. Chapter IX: Moves and Countermoves

**Chapter IX: Moves and Countermoves**

**Date: January 17****th****, 2031**

**Time: 5:31 AM**

Lucy tinkered away in her old warehouse, working crazily at the monitor of one her machines as if her life depended on it. In a way, it did. Vortex was still out there, and any one of them could be next. Meanwhile, Gwen was making getting in the way of their efforts left and right without showing any signs of stopping. Gwen had seen things none of them could understand, experienced things so gruesome that she couldn't bring herself to talk about it, though they all had their own prevailing theories. So how was it that she could be so blind to what was at stake?

It's not like Lantern wanted to kill for sport, almost no one did. At the same time, Vortex had made it clear he had a vendetta against one of their own, and there was no clear sign it would stop there. He had escaped the clutches of five superheroes, so how could a jail cell hold him? The man was clearly psychotic, so there would be no "rehabilitation" of him. When you eliminate the options of incarceration and rehabilitation, what other options did you have? Some people were just too dangerous to roam free: The Joker, The Carnage Symbiote, Vortex. This wasn't about Gwen, it was about all of the innocent people who could get hurt, the price they would all have to pay if they didn't take action.

All of a sudden, her thoughts were shaken back into reality as Lantern stormed into the room, his face set into an expression of cold determination as he clenched his jaw. Lucy rolled her eyes and turned back to her machine. Lantern was under a lot of stress, but he'd also been a complete ass lately (for lack of a better term). He was right in his stance, there was no doubt in her mind, but at the same time he didn't have to be so angst-filled all the time.

"Where is she?" he barked, breaking her concentration yet again. Lucy sighed and stepped away from the machine, turning to face him as she placed her hands on her hips.

"I told you, I can't get a hold of her tracker, she's jammed the signal," she stated flatly, looking him in the eye with a gaze that could have curdled dairy. "Gwen's not stupid, she knows exactly how I usually track her, and she knows it works just as well for an offensive reason as a defensive one."

"Well there must be some other way we can find her," he grumbled, rubbing his temples. "Track the electrical activity in the area?"

Lucy shook her head. "She's going to avoid anything that'll draw attention, you know that. Gwen literally grew up on the streets, she knows how to survive when there's a need."

"Well there's gotta be something."

"I've been using every machine I own to track her for the past hour and a half. You got a better idea, you just let me know Nightlight. We're all trying our best here."

"I know!" he barked, then stiffened and released a heavy sigh before repeating himself at a much quieter volume. "I know."

"What about her friend?" a voice said from the doorway. Both Lantern and Lucy turned to the source of the dialogue, quickly discovering it was indeed Jetta, who was watching intently in the background. "Michael, I think it was."

"What about Michael?" Lucy inquired warily. She didn't trust this girl, but she had proven to be a loyal – and useful – ally, so she put up with her despite the misgivings. Still, she didn't particularly appreciate the insinuation that there was something she hadn't thought of.

"Well he gives off a heat-signature doesn't he? Even if his powers aren't active, his body temperature is off the charts."

Lucy gazed at her a minute, her mouth agape in bewilderment. How had she not considered tracking Michael instead? Immediately, Lantern turned to her, curiosity evident in his gaze.

"Would that work?" he asked, his own knowledge in the area being limited to approximately none. Lucy considered a moment before nodding hesitantly.

"Yes, I can easily track Michael, as long as they haven't found a way to disrupt his heat signature. Or worse, mask it by going to an area that already has an intense heat concentration."

"Then give it a shot," he ordered, nodding to the machine. Lucy huffed and rolled her eyes, stomping over to the controls.

"Yes your highness," she muttered under her breath, typing away at the command interface. She pulled up several programs, rewriting the coding and replacing the variables for the desired input in a matter of seconds. The scanner started almost instantaneously, and she watched intently as the results loaded.

"Now, there's no telling for sure that he's even with her," she warned. "We have no way of knowing what she's up to."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. I can think of at least _one_ good hint."

Immediately Lantern whirled around, his ring powering up as Jetta took on a fighting stance. Crouched on the ceiling and staring down upon the laboratory was none other than Gwen herself, her pincers activated and stingers drawn for battle. Lantern fired a blast of green energy directly at her, but instead of moving she took the blast full force, the beam going straight through her and into the ceiling above. Lantern stared in confusion a moment before noticing another figure in the doorway, firing a fist of green light straight towards it, which again careened straight through the figure and into the face of Voltwing, who had just rounded the corner to warn Lantern of the intrusion.

"What's the matter JJ? Your aim needs a lot of work," the voice laughed, six Gwens now circling around him, identical in every way. He fired several more beams of light at each one, each one sailing straight through to hit various different pieces of equipment in the room. Lucy shouted out for him to stop, and only now did Lantern realize his mistake: six Gwens appeared, but Gwen couldn't clone herself and she certainly couldn't teleport. These were mirages.

"Everybody get to the roof!" he barked, flying through the open door and down the hall, weaving through several more mirages as he headed for the staircase. He soared up towards the staircase, only to smash headfirst through a wooden door, which had been disguised as the "staircase" since it was within his sight. Rolling to his feet, he blasted a hole in the roof directly above him and soared through the opening, Jetta leaping up immediately behind him to survey their surroundings.

Soaring above them was Michael, clad in his armored suit and ready for aerial assault, jets of yellow flame streaming off behind him. Normally this would have been Lantern's first concern, but the bigger preoccupation was the army of blue monkeys around him. Now, Lantern had caught on enough to what was happening to realize that the armada before him was one blue monkey max, but there was no way to tell which one it was specifically. He sent a field out in all directions, phasing through all of the mirages except for one, which vanished into thin air before the field reached it. Instantly, it reappeared over Jetta and dropped down upon her, slamming into her full force with his feet. She threw him off, but he teleported away a split second later and reappeared behind her, grappling her and tossing her into Lantern. Lantern managed to side-step at the last second, but Jetta still rolled several more yards before clambering back up to her feet.

By now, Voltwing, Frost, and Archangel were all on the roof as well, basking in the chaos of the battle before them. Immediately, a fireball came down upon frost, who threw up an ice shield at the last second to block the projectile. The ice melted instantly, vaporizing into a cloud of steam that covered the entire rooftop. Jetta dropped to her knees as a bolas wrapped around her legs, throwing her off balance, but she ripped it off with ease and hurled the weighted orbs toward Sol, who was knocked out of the air and onto the rooftop. Frost immediately sent a wave of ice spikes towards him, but a quick jet of flame from Sol melted the projectiles before they could reach him.

The "blue monkey" leapt out from the steam, tackling Voltwing to the ground and teleporting away, taking Voltwing with him. A few blocks away, a bolt of lightning shot into the air, followed by two more in rapid succession, indicating that the speedster was clearly trying to catch the primate with very little success. Jetta was now locked in battle with Lynx, who had slipped out of the shadows at some point to go toe-to-toe in physical combat with her super-powered opponent. Archangel was currently weaving through a maze of stone walls – some mirages and others very real – in an attempt to locate the source of the illusions, but so far was having very little luck in the endeavor. The one person who seemed to be missing, however, was the one person in the attack force that Lantern was actually focusing on. Gwen, despite all her teammates distractions, was nowhere to be seen.

"Looking for someone JJ?" a voice rang out from behind him, a sonic boom sending him careening off to the side and through a billboard screen. Gwen lowered her sonic blasters and leapt over to him, kicking towards his gut. A green hammer swung at her halfway through, but she corkscrewed around it and kneed him in the gut. He was winded, but still managed to grab her by the neck and punch her full force in the face, followed by a jab to the side. Gwen grimaced and then pierced her stinger into his side, injecting him with a tranquilizer fluid to slow his movements. He groaned and then delivered a point-blank explosion of energy into her gut, sending her flying through the air and into Jetta, who grabbed her and held her still, using her as a shield between Rachel and herself. Lantern fired another blast of energy, but Gwen elbowed Jetta in the side and back-flipped at the last second, causing the blow to connect with his own ally. Rachel, in return, fired a shuriken straight at the distracted Lantern, lodging it deep into his calf. He cried out in pain before ripping it out, dropping it to the ground. A bolt of lightning shot towards them then, Voltwing having finally made his way back, and Gwen barely managed to tackle Rachel out of the path of the bolt.

Meanwhile, Jetta deliberately stepped in _front_ of the bolt, taking in its charge and using it as a power boost and hurling a chunk of stone straight towards Michael. The blue monkey – whom Gwen's team knew simply as Erik – teleported in at the last second and warped Michael out of the way, the rock shattering against the ground below. Lantern took off into the air and grabbed Gwen by the neck, soaring into the sky and ramming his fist into her solar plexus, causing her to double over in pain before kneeing him in the balls. She dropped in free fall a moment before opening the web-flaps beneath her armpits and gliding towards a building a block away, landing on it gently as she fired a webline back at Lantern, yanking him towards the ground. He crashed into it, but cushioned the blow with a shield and came out swinging – quite literally, considering he was brandishing an energy blade with his dominant arm. Gwen ducked under and slid, stinging him once more as she whirled around in order to further slow him.

Gwen did several hand-springs backwards until she reached a metal pipe that was lying on the ground, brandishing it as she swung for Lantern, parrying his every strike. Eventually, she dropped the pipe and delivered a sonic boom at point blank range, earning an immediate explosion of energy from just as far away. The two careened off in separate directions, Lantern crashing into a truck on the other side of the street while Gwen was blasted through two brick walls. She struggled to her feet, attaching a webline to each side of the opening and pulling herself back to slingshot, adjusting the angle so she would return back to the original battlefield to help her teammates. A second later, she shot through the air, tackling Frost to the ground before he could send an ice spike towards Michael, who was currently blasting a stream fire at Archangel. She punched down at him, only to be hurled into the air by Lantern, who had returned just as quickly, unbeknownst to her. He slammed her against the wall, Rachel trying to come to her aid but having to fight her way through Jetta in order to do so. Lantern materialized several energy cuffs against her arms and legs, holding her against the wall before raising an energy blade to her neck, the battle suddenly going silent in shock.

"Call them off," he spat, not taking his gaze off of her.

"Or what?" Gwen croaked, her gaze steely and unafraid despite the blade to her neck.

"You know what."

"You wouldn't."

"Don't test me," he growled, pressing the blade against her neck further. "You're causing enough trouble to warrant it I'd say."

"Lantern, stop," Jetta commanded, watching him intently. Indeed, the entire squadron was watching in confusion, unsure what to do. They had anticipated killing a murderer, but this was taking things a step further. "This isn't what we signed up for."

"It's exactly what we signed up for," he retorted. "Eradicating the problem. Right now, that problem is her."

"So why don't you do it JJ?" Gwen inquired. Silence hung in the air a moment, Lantern refusing to respond. "Don't you think your dad would be proud to see you like this?"

"Would yours?" Lantern retorted, his eyes narrowing.

"Lantern, just back away," Jetta urged, trying to defuse the situation. She had never intended for things to get this out of control.

"I'll do what I have to do," he responded, his eyes emotionless and cold. "Whether you agree with it or not doesn't matter." With that, he pulled back the blade and began to swing for Gwen's neck when a shuriken lodged itself in his calf, throwing off his swing and dematerializing the construct as an explosion suddenly rang out behind them, green lightning booming all around them. The source of the explosion was none other than Jetta, who was leaking electricity out of a gash in her side like a live electrical wire. The projectile, it seemed, had grazed her side before connecting with Lantern, and the electricity in her bloodstream was now pouring out into the natural world. Voltwing immediately tackled her to the ground, absorbing as much of the outflow of energy as he could while Rachel shoved a rubber brace around the cut, insulating the outflow of energy. Gwen rushed forward to web the rubber into place, sealing the wound with one final burst of fluid, a few sparks flying out the ends before fizzling out.

Jetta's skin was pale, but she would live given a little time for recuperation. Gwen and Rachel exchanged a quick glance of concern, but the others were all focusing on a different matter altogether now: Locating the source of the projectile.

"No one's in sight," Michael noted, even switching to thermal vision to check for heat signatures. "Whoever fired the shuriken is long gone now."

"If only they were the only one," Erik stated flatly, his voice carrying a surprising edge of anger that the others didn't quite understand. That is, until they looked back and realized that Lantern, Voltwing, Archangel, and Frost had all disappeared, along with Lucy (who had not been seen since the beginning of the ambush). Lantern's squadron, like the source of the projectile, was missing. The difference, however, was that Lantern's squadron did not intend to save lives. They intended to end them.


	10. Chapter X: Mending Bridges

**Chapter X: Mending Bridges**

**Date: January 17th, 2031**

**Time: 7:15 AM**

"We can't just stay underground and let this blow over," Michael stated flatly, his arms crossed as he leaned against the back wall of Si and Nightcrawler's hideout in the old joke shop. "They've gone off the deep end. You saw what Lantern was going to do to Gwen."

"He's not thinking straight," Rachel agreed. "Something's wrong, and we can't just sit by and watch. People will get hurt, and I'm beginning to think JJ has nothing to do with it. JJ's acting completely out of character."

"Even so, we can't be sure that we can stop him," Erik admitted. "Whether he's in his right mind or not is completely irrelevant as to whether or not he can carry out his plans. And the fact of the matter is, he puts up a _very_ good fight."

"That's even more reason we have to stop him," Rachel urged, beginning to get frustrated. Erik and Isaac had been hesitant towards helping at all, but now that their ambush had ended in a stalemate at best they were even more hesitant to continue. If they were truly honest, it was easy to see why. Even so, how could they abandon it now? Especially when they considered it may not even be Lantern's fault.

"And what about Gwen?" Isaac asked pointedly, nodding his head to the back of the room, where a door was shut tight against the outside world. Jetta was inside – still sleeping after her injury in the attack – and Gwen was kneeling by her bedside, just as she had been without fail for the past hour. She would not move when approached, would not speak when spoken to, would not even shift her gaze if someone tried to get her attention. Lantern's attempt to kill her had given her quite a shock, but Rachel knew it was far more than that: Gwen felt guilty. In her mind, this was all her fault. People were dying and Jetta was seriously wounded. That never would have never happened if Gwen hadn't tried to stop Lantern. Lantern was out of control, that wouldn't have happened if Vortex hadn't tried to kill Gwen, and Vortex could never have attacked her if she wasn't around.

This assessment was far from fair, and everyone knew it. Everyone, that is, except Gwen, who Rachel knew from experience had a terrible habit of blaming herself for everything. It didn't have to be real. It didn't have to make sense. If there was a way Gwen was connected, then – at least in her mind – it was her fault, and no one could talk her out of it.

"Gwen needs some time to process," Michael stated, glancing to Rachel knowingly. Evidently he had come to the same conclusion.

"We _all _need time to process," Erik pointed out, sighing in exasperation. "Which is why we can't go jumping right back into the fray."

"Why are we jumping back in at all?" Isaac inquired. "If this Vortex guy is brought to justice, is that really so bad?"

"Whose justice?" Rachel snapped. "Lantern's? Gwen's?" She shook her head. "The moment we start carrying out our own orders for execution is the moment that we go from savior to dictator, you know that Isaac."

"And if the civilians don't want our help?"

"When did whether someone wants help ever factor into the equation?" Michael demanded, his arms spread wide in exasperation. "Whether someone wants something or not has absolutely no impact on right and wrong."

"But the lives of bystanders do carry an impact on wisdom and foolishness," Erik countered, raising his hand gently as a sign for everyone to calm down. "I'm not trying to insinuate that we should leave this alone and let whatever happens happen. What I _am_ saying is that we need to consider the approach. We can't get hundreds of citizens killed in an attempt to stop the death of one would-be murderer."

Rachel opened her mouth to speak, and then stopped mid-breath. Try as she might, she couldn't help but admit that Erik was right. Obviously they couldn't let Lantern loose. At the same time, they couldn't let innocent people keep dying because of their struggle. As it was, more and more of the city was being beaten and bogged down with every attack. They had to change their tactics. She gave a deep sigh before slowly nodding in understanding. "So what do we do then? Sit here and wait for JJ to attack? Play cards as he does whatever he wants?"

"No," Erik conceded, glancing towards the door that separated the four from the two girls inside. "But you do have a friend in there who could use someone to talk to."

Rachel bit her lip and stared down at the ground hesitantly. Of course Gwen needed her help. That had occurred to her the moment Gwen had locked herself in that room. At the same time, did she even want Rachel's help? And _could_ she help even if she did? What would she even be able to do?

"What if I say the wrong thing?" Rachel inquired, voicing the fear that truly kept her from going into the room.

"You might," Erik agreed, shocking her with his bluntness. "However, I can promise you that saying nothing is already saying the wrong thing. From there, it can only get better."

She nodded a bit, glancing over to Michael for reassurance. He gave a slight nod, a half-smile of support coming to his face as he gave a quick nod towards the door. After forcing a slight smile back at him, she took a deep breath and walked over to the door at the other side of the room, the boys turning to continue speaking once she did.

Rachel hesitated slightly at the door before knocking gently on it three times. Only silence greeted her from beyond the wooden barrier, and again she knocked. Again, silence. "Gwen?" Rachel inquired worriedly, still receiving no response from her friend. Sighing, she turned the knob, only to find it was locked from the inside. With a frown, she pulled a bobby pin from her hair and easily picked the lock, opening the door gently and stepping inside.

Gwen was still knelt beside Jetta, staring at her with an expression of pure guilt and loneliness that broke Rachel's heart on sight. It was very possible that the silence had not been out of Gwen ignoring her, but because she was so wrapped up in her own head that she legitimately hadn't even noticed the knocking. Wordlessly, Rachel walked over to Gwen and knelt down beside her, placing a hand on her back reassuringly. Even at her touch, Gwen barely seemed to stir, blinking somehow seeming optional in the midst of the tempest inside her brain.

"You know this isn't your fault," Rachel spoke softly, trying to get through to her friend. "This would have happened with or without you."

"Vortex wouldn't have been able to attack me if I wasn't around," Gwen pointed out dejectedly, her voice quiet as an almost imperceptible tremor ran through its tone.

"If it wasn't you it would've been someone else," Rachel assured her, trying to reason through the emotion and guilt that Gwen was bringing upon herself.

"You don't know that."

"Neither do you."

The two sat there a few moments in complete silence, Rachel rubbing her friends back gently as Gwen stared at Jetta in concern. To Gwen, this was more than just guilt. This was a personal failure. A week ago, this girl had saved her life before she even learned her name. Now, she was nearly comatose because of Gwen's own inability to keep things under control. It shouldn't have come to this in the first place.

"How did one little scratch do so much damage?" she breathed, trying to figure out the logic behind all of this. "One little nick in her skin and suddenly a lightning storm is pouring out of her…"

"It's normal," Rachel assured her. They had wondered the same thing, but a quick examination of Jetta's vitals revealed she was very clearly extra-terrestrial in origin. She looked humanoid externally, but where a human's veins ran with blood, Jetta's ran with pure electricity. Her organs, while similarly structured, were in slightly different locations throughout her body, and their general shape was different in many ways as well. Her bones were denser, her muscles thicker, and her skin tougher than the standard human, though it seemed that these all grew more malleable as she lost electricity through the wound. "Her species has tough skin, but when she _does_ bleed…"

"She gushes," Gwen finished sadly, looking down at the floor. "Is there any news on who threw the boomerang?"

"No," Rachel admitted, glad for a change of subject. "Whoever it was didn't want to be found."

"It was probably pretty easy to get away with that lightning storm going on," she remarked bitterly, grateful for her salvation but also a bit angry that someone else had gotten hurt in the process.

"You know they didn't mean to hit Jetta," Rachel reminded her gently. "They were saving your life."

"I know," Gwen admitted, locking eyes with her and giving a slight frown. "I know… still, it'd help to know who I have to thank."

"Maybe you will someday," Rachel offered, smiling slightly. "Why are you so concerned about Jetta? I know you'd be worried no matter who was hurt, but why Jetta specifically? She tried to kill you after all."

"She tried to get Lantern to stop," Gwen admitted. "Not just this time, but in the argument back at the warehouse. I might not always agree with her methods, but she recognized Lantern has been going off the deep end. Besides, she saved my life from Vortex… regardless of how she feels about me now, I owe her."

"We saved her life too, I think you're probably even," Rachel reminded her.

"I'm also the reason she was hurt in the first place."

"Oh my God, I didn't save your life just so you could beat yourself up for returning the favor you narcissistic šikna," Jetta groaned from the bed. Gwen and Rachel immediately looked up in surprise, their mouths hanging slightly open.

"How much did you hear?" Gwen inquired slowly, trying to wrap her head around the sudden recovery.

"Enough," Jetta assured her, pulling herself into a sitting position with some difficulty. Both Gwen and Rachel tried to force her down, but a glance from Jetta was all they needed to see she was fully capable (or at least that she wanted to pretend she was). Propping herself up on her elbows, the girl glanced up at the two girls with an expression of what could only be described as mixed emotions.

"Look," she said, trying to figure out exactly how to say what was running through her mind. "I had no clue that this is what Lantern had in mind."

"We know that," Gwen assured her.

"I just wanted to take Vortex down, you were never supposed to be a factor."

"We know that too," Rachel confirmed.

"The moment he attacked you, I wanted to leave, but I had to figure out what he was-"

"It's okay," Gwen insisted, cutting the girl off. "We get it, honestly."

Jetta nodded slowly, looking down in guilt. It would be some time before she forgave herself for the trouble her actions had caused, whatever her intentions had been. Gwen and Rachel both understood this, to varying degrees, and they also recognized that there was very little they could say to placate the sensation. It was something that would have to pass of its own accord, for better or worse.

"About you getting hurt," Gwen began, only to be cut off as Jetta placed her hand over her mouth, forcibly muting her.

"Look, as far as I'm concerned I saved your life and you saved mine. Regardless of any issues we may have had during the events in between, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Okay?"

Gwen nodded a bit, and Rachel smiled off to the side as Jetta removed her hand. Silence filled the room for a few moments, each wondering exactly what there was to say from here.

"You said you were figuring out what Lantern was up to?" Rachel inquired curiously. Jetta looked over at her in surprise, seemingly having forgotten she was present, then gave a slight nod of confirmation.

"He's gotten… strange," she admitted. "At first, I thought maybe it was just mental issues or something like that, but he seems too far gone to be that simple, especially if this is new for him. It just seems so out of nowhere, doesn't it?" Gwen and Rachel both nodded at that, having had similar thoughts themselves often over the last few days.

"Did anything unusual stand out to you?" Gwen inquired, searching for any form of clue they could use to deduce why he was acting so out of character.

"He's been using the word 'we' a lot," Jetta admitted, racking her brain for specific examples. "At first, I just thought it was 'we' as in Frostbite and Voltwing and the rest of the group, you know? But then, I started to overhear what almost sounded like conversations between him and someone else. When I'd glance into the room, he'd be alone. No phone, no computer, nothing that he could be using for communication, but he'd still be using the word 'we'."

Gwen had grown noticeably paler during this conversation, and a chill ran down her spine. She had heard of many instances like this one, experienced one in particular that made her skin crawl in ways nothing else could. If what Jetta was saying was true, then it was no wonder Lantern had been acting so strangely.

"Jetta, that sounds like-"

"Like a Symbiote," Jetta finished. "Yeah, it does."

Gwen stared at her in confusion. Most people knew of the existence of the symbiotes, given her father's consistent battles with them. Knowledge of their traits, however, was much more limited in scope. Before she could question how Jetta knew this, however, the girl began to speak again.

"You were wondering how I knew about symbiotes, right?" Gwen didn't answer, but evidently she didn't really need to, as Jetta immediately resumed speaking, not waiting for a reply. "When I put my hand over your mouth, I accidentally read your memories. Not all of them, but enough."

"You read my what?" Gwen repeated in confusion, sure she had heard her wrong in some way, shape, or form.

"Your memories," Jetta nodded. "My people, the Ohmans, have a certain connection to electricity that most species can't imitate."

"You don't say," Rachel muttered, remembering the electrical storm after Jetta's injury.

"Electricity flows through our veins like blood through yours," Jetta continued. "In battle, we can use it to strengthen our muscles to extreme levels, enhancing our speed, reflexes, durability, strength, and agility. When injured, it pours out, like you saw earlier. But in creatures with electrical-based nervous systems, like your own, we can also read the electrical patterns of your brain. It's not always something we can control, whether I intend to or not."

"So you know everything about me?" Gwen inquired worriedly, a bit concerned about the breach in privacy, however unintended it may have been.

"Only pieces," Jetta assured her, though her eyes showed a kind of pity that made Gwen think she had seen far more than she was letting on.

"Okay, hold on a second," Rachel interjected, desperately trying to keep up with all of this. "Can we get back to the Symbiote business a moment? Because you can't possibly mean what I think you mean."

"That's exactly what she means Rachel," Gwen confirmed grimly. "A Symbiote like Venom, or Carnage, or Toxin, or who knows what else."

"I thought they were dead though?" Rachel responded, rubbing her temples in concentration.

"Some of them are," Gwen admitted. "Others… not so much. Besides, what other explanation is there? Overusing the word 'we'? Getting more violent and unpredictable? Even you have to admit Lantern seems to be way more powerful than he usually is. It fits the profile to a T."

"And if we _are_ dealing with a Symbiote…?" Rachel prompted, hoping for some kind of game plan.

"Then we need to get it off of him," Jetta stated flatly. "And fast."


	11. Chapter XI: One Last Stand

**Chapter XI: One Last Stand**

**Date: January 17****th****, 2031**

**Time: 8:32 PM**

"I don't care what you have to do to find them, just do it!" Lantern roared, his eyes flaring with the rage so vast that even the Hulk would be positively green with envy (amongst other things). The others all cowered before him, fearing for their lives if they were to anger him any further. Lantern had been bad before, but now that Jetta was nowhere to be found he was a true force to be reckoned with. It was all Lucy could do to keep her machines running given the amount of power the lab was sucking up, let alone operating at maximum potential.

She had tried to explain to Lantern that there was only so much power for them to use. She had tried to explain that her machines, however efficient, were not infallible. She had tried explaining a hundred different things in a thousand different ways, but he would have none of it. With each new excuse, his expression would grow colder, his eyes grow steelier, and a cold shiver would run down her spine in fear of what he could do next. Even when he wasn't around, she could practically feel his breath glancing down her neck. It was an uncomfortable, ominous feeling.

"We're trying boss, but it's like they've vanished into thin air!" Voltwing tried to explain, cowering as Lantern sent a life-threatening glare his direction. If looks could kill, Lucy decided, they would all be dead ten times over.

"Well, the last time I checked, there was only one of them in their entire little posse who could do that. Do you remember any others Frost?" Lantern chided, creeping behind the lackey in question with no regard for personal space in his mind. Frost gave a nervous shake of the head in response. "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. I asked, do you remember any others who could vanish into thin air, Frost?"

"No sir!" Frost stammered, shivering a bit out of sheer nervousness.

"And you Voltwing? Archangel? Remember anyone else?" Lantern continued, practically daring them to try something funny. Both shook their heads repeatedly, issuing responses at the speed of light to try and appease him. Lantern, however, was not appeased. "Well, Lucy here's machines got a lock on their location, didn't they Lucy?"

"They're not a hundred percent accurate," Lucy tried to explain, only to be cut off by a withering gaze from the former hero.

"I don't recall asking about their accuracy. What I asked was, did they have a lock on the location?"

"The joke shop on the edge of the Bronx," she spat, gritting her teeth in frustration.

"We checked that place twice boss, no one's there!" Voltwing pleaded.

"Well then find them!" Lantern roared, slamming his fist down on the table. Just as he did, the lights in the room began to flicker, even as a slight, crackling voice began to emanate from the speakers.

"You know JJ, if you really missed us that much, you could've called," Gwen taunted through the machine. Lantern's eyes widened in surprise, then immediately narrowed in fury as his shoulders began to tense.

"Lucy, prep the serum," he growled. Lucy's eyes widened at his order, laughing nervously in response.

"Um… JJ? I thought that was supposed to be a last resort type of-"

"I know what we said!" he roared, Lucy taking a step back in shock. "Prep the serum, now."

"I can't JJ, this isn't what we signed up for!"

"What did you think you were signing up for Lucy? One supervillain, one radical, one murderer? This is about sending a message, and she's blocking the transmission!"

"I can't Jack," Lucy stated flatly, staring directly in his eyes. "I can't."

Tension filled the air as the two stared each other down, Lantern's eyes narrowing as he took a step forward. "I'm going to give you one last chance to do as you're told. Prep the serum."

"Not happening," Lucy said coolly, placing herself between him and the machine in question. Silence filled the room, Lantern glancing between her and the machines.

"Fine," he remarked. "I'll do it myself." It was at that moment that a burst of green energy exploded out from his ring, and Lucy went crashing into the wall at the other end of the lab, slumping to the floor unconscious.

"Boss, we could use some help out here!" Voltwing yelled over the intercom, a massive flash of light shining through the window immediately after as the com-link crackled with static.

"I'll be out in a moment," Lantern responded, grabbing a reinforced vial from the nearest machine and slipping it into his pocket. "Just calling pest control about a little bug problem."

It was at precisely that moment that Lantern's legs were knocked out from under him, sending him sprawling to the ground as Rachel stood over him, a fire burning in her eyes. She was ready for battle this time, her gloves equipped with retractable, razor-sharp claws made of an unidentifiable metal. Her suit was a light-weight fabric armor – dusty silver in color – while her face was concealed by a darker gray ninja-style mask, her chocolate brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her belt was laden with tools of various styles, a whip attached to the left side. Lantern smirked at the ensemble, clearly not troubled by her appearance in the slightest as his ring began to pulse with his usual green energy.

"Someone's been making upgrades, haven't they? Does the bug know you carry around big-girl toys like that?"

"Unlike you, I prefer to use lethal force as a last resort," she growled, eyes narrowing. "Regardless, it is best to always be prepared isn't it?"

"Oh, I agree," Lantern remarked. "It's just that… I'm really not sure how prepared you are."

A concentrated ray of energy blazed forth from his right hand, but she easily sidestepped it, whirling around and retrieving a metal staff from her back as she slid into a fighting stance. Another beam fired at her head, which she slid under with ease, slamming the butt of her staff into Lantern's head and following up with a roundhouse kick directly in his temple. Lantern went reeling back, then materialized a pair of energy knuckles, ramming his fist directly into her face in kind. Rachel flew back from the blow, but back-flipped in midair, landing on her feet and firing three shurikens at his torso. A shield materialized and caught them with ease, dropping them to the ground harmlessly once the shield dematerialized. Harmlessly, that is, until they hit the ground and the attached mini-grenades exploded with enough force to blast him through the brick wall and into the street below.

He crashed into a parked car, denting the roof and rolling onto the concrete below. Rachel leapt down from the window with ease, her boots designed to cushion long-distance landings. Lantern struggled to his feet, a green hammer slamming down from above to crush her beneath it, but she dove out of the way just in time, grabbing a lid off of the nearby sewer grate and hurling it at him. It bounced off of his shield in midair, and he retaliated with several blasts of emerald energy. She sidestepped the first and ducked under the second, but the third hit her full force and sent her crashing backwards into a light-pole, her armor singed and smoking as she shook off the daze. She struggled to her feet, and lantern materialized a bus-sized green sledgehammer, hurling it directly at her. She had no time to sidestep and closed her eyes as the hammer came her way, only for Erik to teleport in and pull her away at the last second.

Lantern grimaced in distaste, then felt a massive tug at his back as he was hurled into the window of the building across the street, Gwen dangling from the traffic-light behind him. A bolt of lightning struck the pole, and she leapt off just in time, leaving the light fizzling and sparking in chaos as Voltwing streaked by, Sol soaring after him as his armor blazed with his heated aura. Frost slid down from the roof of the building across the road, materializing a sheet of ice a few feet in front of him with every step to skate into the mass, tackling Erik to the ground who proceeded to kick him off and roll to all fours, hands on a rapier on his side. Frost landed on his feet, sending a car-sized icicle towards the group at fifty miles an hour. It would have hit them full force, but a dumpster flew through the air and slammed into it, causing it to explode into a powdery snowfall, courtesy of Jetta.

Lantern flew out the window seconds later, grabbing Gwen and hurling her into the air, slamming her against the wall and ramming a fist into her side, receiving a quick knee to the gut in kind, followed by and elbow to the face. Down below, a blast or ice slammed into Sol, extinguishing the heat of his armor as Voltwing fired another bolt at Rachel, Jetta quickly intercepting and firing the electricity at Archangel as he dive-bombed Erik from above. Voltwing rushed at her to take her down physically, only to run smack down into a concealed van, hidden from his sight by another of Isaac's illusions.

Gwen tried to pull away from Lantern's grasp, but the grasp of his energy-fist was too strong. He began to pull the vial from his pocket, depositing it into a syringe and holding it in front of her. Her eyes widened, her spider-sense refusing to operate around the liquid. Only one time on earth had she experienced that, and that was around the liquid Vortex had injected to her all those nights ago.

"You recognize this don't you?" he smirked, rolling the syringe between the fingers of his free hand. "Took a while to reverse engineer the chemical from your bloodstream, but Lucy got the job done after I convinced her it was a 'necessary counter-measure'."

"You're not thinking straight Lantern," she croaked, barely able to speak through the hand squeezing her throat. "It's the Symbiote, it's making you do things that you would never do otherwise, you have to snap out of it!"

"We aren't doing anything except fulfilling our own desires!" Lantern roared, his eyes taking on a reddish tint as his veins began to grow darker.

"And who is we?" she muttered. "You and the voices in your head?"

"We are many," he growled, his eyes completely manic now, holding no trace of the Lantern she considered her friend. "We are stronger together."

"Stronger than who?"

"Than anyone!" he roared and pulled the syringe back, ready to inject it into her bloodstream. "And now you will be as weak as they are to match." He stabbed the syringe forward, when out of nowhere he was tackled to the ground, his hand wrenched off of Gwen's throat as he was hurled through the air directly into Archangel, who was just now getting to his feet. The figure responsible, a girl in bronze roman battle-armor, quickly picked up the car Lantern had dented previously, and threw it straight at Frost, who had been aiming a flurry of icicles at Jetta's head only seconds beforehand.

Jetta stared at the girl, her mouth open in shock as she began to blush uncontrollably, turning her face away. Gwen's eyes widened beneath her mask as she and Jetta had a silent conversation that ran something along the lines of: "Wait… you… with girls… really?" Jetta gave a non-committal nod of embarrassment, to which Gwen shrugged and leapt down, firing a net into the street below to catch Voltwing as he zipped down the street. Lantern tried to roll to his feet, only to be hoisted into the air, a blade held to his throat as Frost and the rest of Lantern's team quickly took several steps back, realizing their leader was defeated.

"You meddle in things you do not understand green one!" she barked, her eyes narrow. "Stand your ground or suffer the consequences."

"We don't believe we've met before, have we tried to kill you lately?" he asked, laughing despite the threat to his life. Clearly, he was too far gone to care.

"Not as of yet, but you have caused too much destruction to keep going unnoticed. Now I am going to give you one more chance to stand your ground," she responded coolly, applying a bit more pressure to the blade. Lantern only laughed in response.

"Absolutely. We'd love to. Only, you aren't really in a position to command us, are you?" he giggled, then his eyes rolled back in his skull and slumped back as a red ooze leapt off of his back and onto Jetta. She began to contort and roar in pain, her back arching until she let out a monstrous hiss, her eyes bloodshot and her green energy now red in coloration.

"Jetta?" Erik asked cautiously, only for Gwen to wave him back, standing stock-still in fear. Jetta rose to her feet, cocking her head to them with a malevolent gaze.

"No… not Jetta… not anymore," she rasped, clenching her fists.

"And who are you then?" Michael prompted, taking a step forward as his armor began to glow. Jetta chuckled and turned her gaze to each of them in kind before settling on Gwen, her eyes narrowing.

"We are Hybrid, and we will finish what we started."


End file.
